WiMedia Pushes Global UWB

Online staff -- Electronic News, 8/15/2005

The WiMedia Alliance today announced that it is working with Ecma International to establish the WiMedia multiband orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) ultra-wideband (UWB) radio platform as the global UWB standard.

WiMedia, a group that includes the likes of Microsoft, Philips, Samsung, Intel and TI, credits itself as being responsible for rapidly achieving international standardization of UWB. The group further said it is working diligently to ensure that the industry does not become fragmented by independent regional standards or proprietary implementations that prevent global interoperability and could delay the adoption of UWB products.

Accordingly, WiMedia is pursuing standardization of its UWB specification through Ecma International, the organization known for its development of DVD interchange standards, scripting languages and other information, communications technology, and consumer electronics standards.

"We are very pleased to be working with Ecma, who make it possible to quickly complete the process of establishing a recognized international standard by the end of this year, which corresponds to UWB product launches," said Stephen R. Wood, president of the WiMedia Alliance, in a statement. "We're extremely encouraged by the efficiency and maturity of the Ecma standard process, which balances quality with timeliness in standards drafting and publication."

WiMedia's UWB solution supports a data rate of 480Mbits/sec. and beyond. The technology recently got the thumbs up from the Federal Communications Commission in March and competes with Freescale’s UWB.