Ultra-Wideband Technology

Wireless connectivity has enabled a new mobile lifestyle. Consumers will soon demand the same conveniences throughout their digital home, connecting their PCs, personal digital recorders, MP3 recorders and players, digital camcorders and digital cameras, high-definition TVs (HDTVs), set-top boxes (STBs), gaming systems, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cell phones, in a wireless personal area network (WPAN) in the home.

But today’s wireless LAN and WPAN technologies cannot meet the needs of tomorrow’s connectivity of such a host of emerging consumer electronic devices that require high bandwidth. A new technology is needed to meet the needs of high-speed WPANs. Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology offers a solution for the bandwidth, cost, power consumption, and physical size requirements of next-generation consumer electronic devices. UWB enables wireless connectivity with consistent high data rates across multiple devices and PCs within the digital home and the office.

This emerging technology provides the high bandwidth that multiple digital video and audio streams require throughout the home. With the support of industry workgroups, such as the wireless universal serial bus (USB) workgroup, and technology leaders, like Intel, UWB technology promises to make it easy to create highspeed WPANs that can connect devices throughout the home.