New Wireless USB Spec Ready To Roll

The same group minus Samsung was also responsible for recently finalizing the USB On-The-Go spec, which in theory allows two USB devices to talk to each other without requiring the services of a personal computer.

The new wireless specification is pretty straightforward: It provides speeds of wired USB wirelessly.

The spec will deliver 480 Mbps bandwidth at 2 to 3 meters and 110 Mbps at 10 meters. It will also scale to more than a Gigabit per second and beyond at ranges within the 10 meters. Wireless USB will use the UltraWideBand radio technology platform.

The new connection specification is not a LAN connection but a PAN connection, which is a point-to-point connection between a host and a device. One wireless USB host will accommodate up to 127 devices, so there is no need to have hubs with the wireless capabilities.

Wireless USB will be modeled after wired USB, and as such should enjoy the same success that wired USB has found as a point-to-point connection. Wireless networking should have no impact on the speed or connection of the USB spec.

The spec uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128, which protects sensitive data streams running over wireless and public networks with the creation of an AES key that can be password-protected by the user.

The spec will deliver on the promise that USB wireless will continue to be plug-and-play, easy to use, and convenient for mobile computing users. The No. 1 reason why people love USB is simply because it works.

The idea of creating the wireless USB specification was first talked about at last year's spring Intel Developer Forum, said Jeff Ravencraft, president of the USB-Implementers Forum (USB-IF), which manages all USB specifications. "The goal was to create a spec in a year, and we did just that," Ravencraft said.

The first batch of products will be sold as add-on devices in the form of dongles, which should help introduce the technology to consumers without overwhelming them. It also will allow those who have made an investment in one of the 2 billion USB devices sold to continue to benefit from that investment and make the transition to a complete wireless solution.

The spec is now readily available on the USB-IF public site, which provides an adopter agreement for download for vendors that want to build support for the specification into their product lines.

USB wireless silicon products are slated to be ready by the third quarter of this year. The end result will be a trickle of products in the form of host wire adapters or device wire adapters, which will bring wireless USB capabilities to legacy devices.

The host side will see wireless USB emerge in form factors including USB flash card devices that will plug into the USB port, dongles, or PCI or PCI-X cards.

The device side will consist of very small wireless adapters in the form of a USB flash drive, but the silicon and the modules will be small enough to be incorporated right into the device as a chip. Some vendors may choose to incorporate the wireless adapters right into the host, but initially they will be used as add-on devices.

In the digital office or in a large corporate environment, the need for high-speed wireless interconnect technology will always exist. There is a huge opportunity here for everyonevendors, solution providers that implement products and system builders that sell systems. At the end of the day, USB wireless is all about building new usage models, improving support, making life easier for consumers and driving new lifestyle products to the forefront.