Bluetooth Going Ultra-Wideband

Bluetooth wireless technology standard for mobile phones and other small devices, will take a leap in transmission speed, and expand its scope to enable high-definition video and document digital music player iPod case.

The industry group behind Bluetooth said Tuesday that it would speed increase will be in the next few years, a new radio technology, known as ultra-wideband, or UWB.

Currently, Bluetooth technology is only applicable to low-speed uses such as headsets and wireless keyboard. UWB, and has yet to appear in consumer electronics products, enabling wireless transmission speeds equivalent to USB or FireWire cables, the distance of 10 feet.

The first batch of products with high-speed Bluetooth may show that the end of next year, with wider availability in 2008, said Michael Foley, executive director, Bluetooth special interest groups.

UWB is the development of another industry group, the WiMedia Alliance, which includes Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft its convergence with Bluetooth technology will provide a way for devices with UWB hardware to determine each other and communicate. For example, a Bluetooth cell phone headsets can automatically identify and know that it receive and transmit audio data.

"There is a convergence three main areas: personal computers, consumer electronics and mobile phones, said:" Stephen Wood, President of the WiMedia Alliance.

These devices need the ability to send large files, Wood said. For example, a camera with WiMedia technology for transmitting high-definition video can be transmitted to the wireless TV in the same room.

Agreement with Bluetooth Technology Group is further validation of the approach WiMedia Alliance, the use of UWB technology.

Its competitors, including smaller UWB Forum, a spin-off of around Motorola Freescale Semiconductor Inc., the two companies used different techniques to use the same radio frequency spectrum, and has little to further the implementation of . Over the years these two groups trying to unity on a single standard, but earlier this year formally sever these efforts.

Freescales technology is expected to appear in the next few months, in the first consumer electronic products, notebook computers with wireless connectivity USB hub.

However, the WiMedia Alliance has a larger base, supporting industries and shares many members and the Bluetooth standards group.

"It just seems to be the WiMedia solution have more momentum now, it is just the direction that our members must" Foley said.

ABI Research analyst Stuart carlaw issued a report that declared that the Bluetooth technology in the WiMedia "paints a very bleak" for the UWB Forum, he said, may not be regressive.

Carlaw estimated that more than 1 billion Bluetooth products will be made annually by the end of the decade, even if only a small part of the WiMedia including hardware, it will still far exceed other ultra-wideband technology. But Robert eisses, marketing responsible for the UWB Forum, said in a statement that the announcement "is not a direct impact," the work of the Working Group.

Bluetooth technology will not be the only communications protocol for the WiMedia hardware. Union members are developing wireless USB standard and another based on the Internet Protocol, the core communications technology, e-mail, Web pages and other Internet traffic. The first product is expected in September.

Regardless of taste, the use of UWB very broad spectrum radio transmission is very weak and rapid signals. Freescales chips send rapid pulses across a wide range of frequencies. Chip companies Alereons part of the WiMedia Alliance, divide the work spectrum into multiple channels and data transmission, through their respective at the same time.

The United States Federal Communications Commission has cleared the use of UWB in the United States, but the technology still needs approval from the authorities in the spectrum for the rest of the world.

Foley said that the Bluetooth Group believes that the best way to achieve this goal will focus on the rarely used band above 6 GHz. This would ease regulatory concerns, but also reduce a variety of technology, because signals can not penetrate walls.