FCC set to vote on UWB standard

FCC commissioners this week are expected to approve commercial use of ultrawideband (UWB), a controversial wireless technology that some analysts believe will overshadow wireless home-networking efforts based on Bluetooth and 802.11 standards.

Currently used primarily in military and safety applications, UWB combines the high throughput rates needed to enable swapping of digital files such as movie clips between a PDA to a television with low power consumption, said Martin Rofheart, CEO of XtremeSpectrum. His company plans to produce UWB chipsets for home-networking solutions if the FCC approves the technology.

Low power consumption is an important factor for smaller devices such as mobile phones, which already face challenges in maintaining battery life. Bluetooth uses even less power than UWB, but its 1 Mbps data speed pales in comparison to UWB's 100 Mbps throughput for a 10 meter range — a rate that almost doubles the speeds reached by the relatively power-intensive 802.11a technology.

“[With UWB], for the first time, the limiting factor is not the wireless technology,” Rofheart said.

In addition to a tenfold advantage in performance, UWB's small CMOS chipsets can be embedded easily into electronic devices, Rofheart said. This would allow the devices to be networked automatically, without the need for an expensive hub or costly network design.

UWB's features are an imposing threat to Bluetooth and 802.11 in the home-networking space, according to Rudy Baca, wireless analyst for the Precursor Group.

“They [Bluetooth and 802.11 technologies] are going to be blown away,” Baca said. “This is a very, very disruptive technology.”

Ultrawideband (UWB) is controversial because it operates on spectrum already being used by other providers such as PCS operators — something the spectrum-strapped FCC likes. However, interference concerns from these incumbents have resulted in three years of study, but most observers believe the FCC is satisfied UWB will not damage other wireless signals and will approve the technology on Feb. 14.

“They're probably going to put certain limitations on it, but they're going to pass it,” Baca said.