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As an increasingly mobile lifestyle takes hold of society, mobile and wireless connectivity is fast becoming a necessity rather than a luxury. Wireless access in devices like cellular handsets and notebooks has created even greater demand for this capability in other consumer devices such as digital cameras, portable digital media players and high-definition televisions (HDTVs). Ultrawideband (UWB) technology now offers a solution for those companies striving toward the notion of “seamless mobility” as a means of enabling consumers to access their media wherever and whenever.

UWB is a high data rate (480 Mbps), short-range (typically up to 10 meters) technology designed to enable the high-speed transfer of multimedia content between various devices (e.g., in consumer electronics, personal computing and mobile device markets) in future data-intensive applications. Increased memory size in portable devices, larger file sizes for digital pictures and videos, and higher-resolution pictures and video for consumer multimedia applications have all increased the requirement for higher wireless data rates. At the same time, the drive to reduce device size, increase data rates and increase battery life means that low-power operation is a crucial design factor.

Accurately assessing the future size of the UWB market depends on a number of issues, such as when products will be launched, the interaction between different application sectors and the combination of different wireless technologies and different UWB protocol adaptation layers (PALs) into the same products (see the figure). The popularity of different PALs and how they interact with each other in different applications has proven to be of great interest to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Each UWB PAL (e.g., Certified Wireless USB (WUSB), Bluetooth and WiNET (Internet protocol (IP)) is optimized for different scenarios and each will work in coexistence with technologies such as Bluetooth and WLAN.

WUSB is a wireless extension to USB, designed to preserve the functionality of wired USB without the cable. It, therefore, has the same usage scenarios as wired USB; with the PC industry providing the initial market opportunity. Because this UWB solution can be used in applications like desktop PCs, notebooks and PC peripherals, it has the potential to gain significant volume in the PC environment.

High-speed Bluetooth (which combines Bluetooth technology with UWB) is now being developed as the next evolution of the Bluetooth experience. The equipment where Bluetooth has established itself is increasingly being used to support data-hungry applications. Where once a short-range wireless connection was used to synchronize an address book, it may now be used, for example, to synchronize part of a music collection. This combination of Bluetooth with the high data rates offered by UWB, means that Bluetooth has the potential to become much more than just a voice application.

High-speed Bluetooth is being optimized for scenarios that differ from previous Bluetooth solutions. As such, it is expected to penetrate into a growing number of portable electronic devices to provide new use cases such as transferring music to a portable digital media player, downloading a music video onto a cellular handset and streaming video.

With the widespread adoption of Internet protocol-based technologies (WiNET), it is practical to run voice, video and data over a single physical data infrastructure rather than over separate networks. UWB technology can enable IP-based connectivity for the next generation of IP-based PC and consumer electronic devices. IP's peer-to-peer topology makes devices such as printers, displays and storage more accessible.

While the details provided above summarize some of the applications for which UWB is optimized, a market that cannot be ignored is the cellular handset. Consider, for example, that the sharp rise in the number of feature phones and smart phones has made the need for extra connectivity absolutely critical. Given that fact, the cellular handset is likely to be an important market for UWB for a number of reasons. The sheer size of the available market means that even if relatively low penetration rates are achieved, there is still a huge potential market for UWB. The possible negative effect of cellular handsets on markets such as PDAs, MP3 players and digital cameras only heightens the importance of the cellular market to the future of UWB. In addition, the cellular handset remains at the center of the wireless personal area network (WPAN). UWB's usage and presence in the cellular space, therefore, increases the likelihood that it will be successful in a number of other devices.

Most of the initial ‘leg work’ in developing UWB and its various technology solutions appears to have been done. The future of UWB now comes down to market adoption. While worldwide regulatory approval has yet to be finalized, it is clear that momentum behind this technology is at its highest — especially now that products are being readied for market rollout.

Fiona Thomson is a market research analyst at IMS Research.

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