IP: New technology to transmit video without wires through home

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>


Posted on Thu, Mar. 21, 2002

New technology to transmit video without wires through home
By Joelle Tessler
Mercury News

Someday soon, you will be able to take the video stream that your
set-top cable box brings into your living room and beam it to the
television set in the back bedroom without hooking up any cables. You
will be able to transfer the video footage from your last vacation
from the camcorder to the TV without fumbling with wires. You will be
able to send a multimedia presentation from a laptop to an overhead
projector without plugging in any cords.
These are some of the promises of ultra-wideband, a powerful
technology that can transmit streaming video and other
bandwidth-hogging content around homes and offices. Although
ultra-wideband -- or UWB -- has been around for about 12 years, the
wireless networking industry only last month received the crucial
go-ahead from the Federal Communications Commission to develop the
technology for mainstream commercial applications.
Now ultra-wideband is poised to potentially shake up the world of
wireless networking -- going head to head with more established
wireless technologies like 802.11 and Bluetooth -- as UWB-enabled TV
sets, VCRs and other devices hit the market in time for Christmas
2003.

``Ultra-wideband will allow you to make your surround-sound system
and your video system completely wireless,'' said Michael Gallagher,
deputy director of the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration, a bureau of the Commerce Department that manages the
federal wireless spectrum along with the FCC. ``This lets you get rid
of the rat's nest of wires.''

First developed by the military, ultra-wideband works by sending very
short, narrow pulses of electromagnetic energy across a broad swath
of the radio spectrum. The military already uses the technology in
ground-penetrating radar systems to detect land mines and other
objects buried underground, and police officers use it in imaging
systems to monitor movement behind doors and walls.
But while ultra-wideband technology is quite compelling, it is also
controversial. That's because UWB signals can cross parts of the
radio spectrum already licensed for other uses, including the PCS
spectrum used by cellular providers like Sprint and the GPS spectrum
used by the military for global positioning.

Although companies developing UWB networking technology maintain that
ultra-wideband emissions are too low-powered to interfere with other
radio signals, it has taken the Federal Communications Commission
three years to approve the use of the technology for commercial
wireless networking applications. When the FCC -- with an endorsement
from the National Telcommunications and Information Administration --
finally gave the green light last month, the commission was careful
to restrict the parts of the spectrum used by UWB and to limit UWB
emission levels to minimize any risk of interference.

Crosses spectrum
According to Rudy Baca, an analyst for the Precursor Group, a telecom
research firm, the approval of UWB for use in wireless networking --
even though UWB signals cross parts of the spectrum licensed by
others -- allows the FCC to make better use of the existing radio
spectrum at a time when spectrum is in short supply.
The real question facing ultra-wideband now is whether it can break
into a market already dominated by two existing wireless networking
standards: Bluetooth, which is used for short-range personal area
networks, or PANs, and 802.11, which is used in wider local area
networks, or LANs.
Although some analysts don't see much of a difference between UWB and
802.11 in particular, those developing the UWB market said the
technology can do things that the existing wireless networking
systems cannot.
Most important, they say, UWB can handle more bandwidth-intensive
applications -- like streaming video -- than either 802.11 or
Bluetooth because it can send data at much faster rates. UWB
technology has a data rate of roughly 100 megabits per second, with
speeds up to 500 megabits per second. That compares with maximum
speeds of 11 megabits per second for 802.11b, often referred to as
Wi-Fi, which is the technology currently used in most wireless LANs;
and 54 megabits per second for 802.11a, which is being rolled out as
the next version of Wi-Fi, called Wi-Fi 5. Bluetooth has a data rate
of about 1 megabit per second.
As a result, UWB is particularly well-suited for wireless home
entertainment networks, explained Jeff Ross, vice president of
corporate development for Time Domain, an Alabama company that
designs UWB chip sets for military, law enforcement and now
commercial uses.

Cheaper to produce
Ultra-wideband is also less expensive than 802.11, which is critical
in the price-sensitive world of consumer electronics, said Chris
Fisher, vice president of marketing at XtremeSpectrum, a Virginia
company developing UWB chip sets that would go into consumer
electronics like VCRs and TVs.
According to Fisher, the bill of materials -- the cost to the
consumer electronics manufacturer to place UWB technology inside a
device -- is $20 for ultra-wideband, compared with $40 for 802.11b
and $65 for 802.11a.
In addition, UWB technology consumes much less power than 802.11,
making it ideal for use in battery-powered devices like cameras and
cell phones. Wi-Fi, in contrast, ``is limited to PCs and things that
you can plug into a wall,'' said Geoffrey Anderson, vice president of
Sony's advanced wireless technology group.
Perhaps the biggest drawback of UWB is its range of operation,
although the technology can transmit signals farther when sending at
lower data rates. Ultra-wideband can transmit signals within a range
of about 10 meters, or 35 feet. That's roughly comparable to the
range of Bluetooth but smaller than the range of both 802.11a at 15
meters and 802.11b at 50 meters.
Still, the range of an ultra-wideband network can be extended by
placing ``repeaters'' -- other UWB-enabled devices -- around a home
or office.

Someday, said Cahners In-Stat analyst Mike Wolf, ultra-wideband
systems may even emerge as a competitor to the 3G wireless data
networks that cellular providers like Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless
are now building.
Now that the FCC has given its blessing to the use of UWB technology
for wireless networking, Gartner Dataquest Group analyst Todd Hanson
believes the big challenge for companies like Time Domain and
XtremeSpectrum will be to bring consumer electronics manufacturers on
board. ``They will have to evangelize the technology,'' Hanson said.
Time Domain is already working with more than two dozen companies to
develop applications for its UWB chip sets. And Xtreme Spectrum plans
to be providing sample chips to potential customers by the middle of
this year.

Delivering `more value'
Texas Instruments is also considering incorporating UWB into its
chips. And even Intel is studying the technology. ``Intel wants to
help create a UWB industry because it will allow devices we care a
lot about, like PCs, to deliver more value,'' said Ben Manny,
co-director of the wireless technology development organization in
Intel Labs.
For now, consumer electronics manufacturers like Sony maintain that
it is too early to say exactly how they will use UWB technology in
their products. But they seem intrigued.
``Maybe this is a technology chasing a market today,'' Hanson said.
``But there is a market for this.''



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