WiMedia Alliance shuts down in another blow for UWB
Published: 17 March, 2009
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The past year has been a disastrous one for the nascent UltraWideBand (UWB) technology for short range wireless communications, and the latest blow comes with the shutting down of the main standards organization supporting UWB, the WiMedia Alliance.
The Alliance's technology will still be included in several other standards - notably a future high speed release of Bluetooth and Wireless USB - but will now be handed over to the bodies managing those specs, the Bluetooth SIG, the Wireless USB Promoter Group and the USB Implementers Forum. These will continue any development of the WiMedia system, although there is already talk that Bluetooth will put its UWB activities on hold and rely on Wi-Fi for its high speed release. The SIG had originally intended to use WiMedia for this development, but then split its efforts in two, with Wi-Fi the basis of the more immediate standard upgrade.
Although UWB promises much - in ideal conditions it can deliver speeds up to 600Mbps at very low power over short distances - it has rarely achieved those conditions. Its capabilities have been ringfenced by regulatory restrictions, industry in-fighting, and the rapid progress of high speed Wi-Fi in key UWB target markets such as the digital home. Some argue that the choice of an OFDM basis for the WiMedia platform, which was sparked off by Intel and Texas Instruments, was also a mistake in performance terms. To date, WiMedia demonstrations have fallen well short of their targets, delivering slower speeds than many Wi-Fi networks, while more successful implementations have come from small independent players such as Pulse~Link, which have not yet achieved the major industry partners necessary to infiltrate the consumer electronics mainstream.
Several WiMedia start-ups have already closed down, especially since Intel and TI both defocused on UWB over the past two couple of years. TZero, WiQuest and Focus Enhancements all shut their doors over the past six months, while Artimi merged with Staccato. The two major remaining start-ups, Alereon and Staccato, will license WiMedia IPR from the Bluetooth SIG.
Stephen Wood, president of the WiMedia Alliance, told EETimes the latest development was "a modification to the industry structure we've been discussing and negotiating with the [three groups] since about July of last year", reflecting the mature state of WiMedia and a bid to simplify industry structures. Members wanted fewer groups to attend, and fewer certifications to acquire.
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