Skip to main content

Wireless Standards to Coexist in the Home

Several formidable-looking barriers appear, at first glance, to pose serious obstacles to widespread commercial success for Ultrawideband (UWB). But closer examination reveals that few of them will drastically inhibit the market, which a new ABI Research study forecasts will see nearly 300 million UWB shipments in 2011.

According to principal analyst Stuart Carlaw, some observers have pointed to the lack of standardization as a major barrier to growth in the UWB market. "The collapse of the UWB standards process was widely seen as a major faux pas," he notes, "but those inside the industry viewed it as the shackles being removed."

Similarly, many people point to 802.11n as "the UWB-killer." The reality is that they are complementary. UWB's relationship to 802.11n may be compared to USB's relationship to Ethernet. Although that is an oversimplification, says Carlaw, "It is clear that UWB and 802.11n will co-exist and be powerful allies for each other."

None of this is to say that no factors threaten UWB's success. Issues around global spectrum and regulatory approval, along with the need to drive down cost, power consumption and silicon package sizes, are all legitimate concerns that need to be addressed. There is a need to find global regulatory approval and common frequency allocations.

In ABI Research's analysis, this is the real key to the UWB question. All signs are that the band between 7GHz and 8.5GHz will be common across all regions. The European Communications Commission (ECC) has recently announced support for the 6GHz to 8.5GHz band, while Japan looks set to ratify the 7GHz to 10GHz band.

The recent announcement of the Bluetooth SIG's support for the WiMedia Alliance will also assist the drive for global regulatory approval, since the SIG has had significant success in doing this for its 2.4GHz solutions. It's worth noting that global regulatory endorsement is not a precursor to success, and that Bluetooth gained a lot of ground before receiving general regulatory approval.

Popular posts from this blog

Think Global, Pay Local: The eCommerce Paradox

The world of eCommerce payments has evolved. As we look toward the latter half of this decade, we're witnessing a transformation in how digital commerce operates, with a clear shift toward localized payment solutions within a global marketplace. The numbers tell a compelling story. According to Juniper Research's latest analysis, global eCommerce transactions are set to reach $11.4 trillion by 2029, marking a 63 percent increase from $7 trillion in 2024. This growth isn't just about volume – it's about fundamental changes in how people pay for goods and services online. Perhaps most striking is the projected dominance of Alternative Payment Methods (APMs), which are expected to account for 69 percent of global transactions by 2029, with 360 billion transactions processed through these channels. eCommerce Payments Market Development What makes this shift particularly interesting is how it reflects the democratization of digital commerce. Traditional card-based systems ar...