The Bluetooth Special Interest Group said it will begin working with ultra-wideband developers in combining the strength of both personal wireless area technologies. The Bluetooth SIG said the partnership will extend its long-term roadmap of advancing Bluetooth technology with higher-speed capabilities and allow UWB developers to tap into Bluetooth’s market maturity, qualification program and brand equity.
“It has been apparent that members of the Bluetooth SIG would like to enable products with higher data rates,” explained Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. “I feel that it is the responsibility of the industry to recognize synergies and limit fragmentation as much as possible. Joint development between Bluetooth technology and UWB is the fastest and most economical pathway for both technologies to meet the future demands of companies and end users.”
The Bluetooth SIG updated its technology roadmap last fall with plans for tripling transmission speeds up to 3 megabits per second, increasing security and enhancing quality of service. Foley noted those plans were still being implemented in the Bluetooth 2.0 specification and that the UWB plans would not interfere with those initiatives.
Foley added that the partnership includes working with the WiMedia Alliance and UWB Forum, though details were still pending final ratification of the UWB standard.
Initial plans call for the deployment of a WPAN technology that would rely on Bluetooth for lower speed applications that would take advantage of the technology’s low-power consumption, including headset and other voice applications. The UWB technology would then be accessed for higher-bandwidth applications, including data transfers and streaming video content taking advantage of UWB speeds up to 480 Mbps.
Foley noted that initial products would likely include separate radios and chipsets with software used to select the appropriate technology. The products would also be backward compatible with current Bluetooth 1.1 specifications.
The partnership gained support from Freescale Semiconductor, which is the only company currently shipping UWB silicon.
“We deeply value the expertise of the Bluetooth SIG and its learning in profile and applications for personal area networks,” said Martin Rofheart, director of the UWB operations at Freescale. “By marrying direct sequence UWB and Bluetooth through an industry-developed protocol adaptation layer, we will dramatically enhance existing applications and profiles and enable new wireless user experiences.”
Analysts were generally receptive to the announcement, citing the ability to leverage both technologies in targeting the same market for short-range cable replacement, though some cautioned the initiative could limit current and future WPAN technologies.
“Bluetooth implementing UWB could serve to limit interest in Wireless USB, which also uses UWB as an air interface and targets a similar market, but is still very much unsettled with regard to software and authentication,” said Dan Benjamin, senior analyst at ABI Research.
