<font color=Green>TI and Intel merge UWB proposals for short-range wireless
</font>By Patrick Mannion -- EE Times -- July 14, 2003 (12:32 p.m. EST)
MANHASSET, N.Y. — Texas Instruments Inc. and the Intel Corp.-led Multiband Coalition have merged their ultrawideband (UWB)-based proposals for a high-speed short-range wireless connectivity standard being hammered out by the IEEE 802.15.3a task group.
The merger effectively divides the task group into two. On one side is the newly formed Multiband-OFDM Coalition; on the other are XtremeSpectrum Inc. and Motorola Inc. Both sides are striving to iron out a proposal whose list of participants includes most of the key players in the computer and consumer electronics industries.
The 802.15.3a task group is looking for a low-cost wireless air interface that enables rates of 110 Mbits/s at 10 meters and up to 480 Mbits/s at 1 meter. The new interface will use the current 802.15.3 media access control (MAC), and the target for completion of the PHY definition is scheduled for August 2004. To date, UWB is seen as the leading technology to enable the interface, though other narrowband proposals have been submitted to the group.
Though many agree that UWB is the way forward, issues remain to be resolved. They include exactly how UWB should be implemented to meet both the spectral mask defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in February 2002 while also meeting the data-rate and range requirements of applications such as in-home video streaming. The debate has stirred talk of a clash between the consumer electronics and PC worlds, with each side questioning the other's viability under FCC rules.
XtremeSpectrum (Vienna, VA), which currently is the only vendor with silicon that may be suitable for .15.3a target applications, said a single-band approach — albeit with a notch in the 5-GHz region — is best. In April, however, Intel led the formation of the Multiband Coalition. The group holds that implementing multiple bands, each 500 to 700 MHz wide, would offer the required narrowband-interference rejection and scalability.
The group originally inluded General Atomics, Time Domain, Philips, Wisair and Staccato Communications (previously known as Discrete Time), though others have since joined.
For its part, TI floated a proposal that combined some elements of multiband with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). The moved attracted the interest of Intel and others.
"TI's OFDM approach has some very attractive elements with respect to the range it could do while also solving some of the problems we were experiencing," said Stephen Wood, strategic marketing manager with Intel's R&D division. The use of OFDM increases the energy-capture capabilities of the interface, thereby providing a more robust link, he said. "This is relevant because we'll be doing a lot of CE [consumer electronics] applications, and the last thing they want is the TV to start showing artifacts and/or dropouts," he said. "This has the best chance of achieving a robust link of all the proposals that were being made."
Because the TI proposal provides for three bands, instead the Coalition's seven-band approach, Wood said the new proposal would have a three- or seven-band option, though the two would be fully interoperable.
"We will also work to improve the location resolution, the number of piconets that can be supported simultaneously, make it more scalable [in terms of power and range] to encompass a wider range of applications," he said.
The merger of TI and the Multiband Coalition proposals follows the March announcement by XtremeSpectrum — in which TI is an investor — that Motorola would drop its own proposal and back XSI instead. Hence, the current split.
According to Chris Fisher, vice president of marketing at XtremeSpectrum, the schism sets the stage for a clash between the PC and consumer worlds. Fisher also maintained the frequency hopping-like multiband approach would have to have its data rate significantly cut to ensure compliance with the FCC mask.
Wood denied both assertions. "UWB has a strong CE flavor, but we see the cellular PC and CE markets merging. So, we'll accommodate the needs of each of those. However, it's mainly a MAC issue, mainly to do with quality of service, and we're not at that stage in the standardization yet — at lest not at the same intensity as the PHY layer is being tackled right now," he said.
At next week's IEEE meeting, said Wood, five major CE companies "will define what it is they think they need, and we have ongoing dialog to ensure what they need is accomplished."
The five are Sony, Philips, Samsung, Panasonic and Sharp.
As for the eligibility of frequency hopping under the FCC mask, Wood said, "We obviously recognize all the regulatory questions of the FCC," he said. "We've checked with them to get their opinion before we proceeded and we'll continue to work with the FCC to make absolutely certain it's bulletproof. We wouldn't have made this jump unless we weren't relatively confident it could work."
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