The Starting Signal for Wireless USB

Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 17, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.

Germany’s Federal Network Agency http://www.bundesnetzagentur.de has made the frequencies required for Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology available to the market through a general allocation. The frequency range concerned lies between 30 megahertz and 10.6 gigahertz. The radio technology can therefore be used free of charge. UWB, also known as Wireless USB, is the next generation of wireless transmission technologies.

In future, UWB technology can replace USB cabling. It provides extremely powerful broadband radio transmission paths with very low radiated power, although it can bridge only a few meters. This makes it suitable for connecting different devices wirelessly at the workplace or in the office. The radio technology permits a transmission speed of 480 megabits per second, the same as conventional USB 2.0. However, the data rate is limited by distance. At distances of three meters, wireless USB transmits only 110 megabits per second.

Another field of application for UWB opens up in cars, for example, where electronic components can be connected wirelessly. Hi-fi and video components will also be able to receive data without cabling. Further applications are conceivable in commercial and industrial settings. Frequencies can be used for data transmission in medical applications, measurement technology, location and monitoring technology. The USB interface will therefore in future be implemented purely by radio technology. With its high data-throughput rate, the technology also networks devices for which USB bandwidth had previously been insufficient.

Manufacturers of PC accessories already have initial UWB devices in their product ranges. D-Link, for example, offers the DUB-9240 starter kit as an entry into the wireless USB world. Various devices can be connected to this radio hub at the workplace, with data transmitted via UWB to a desktop or notebook. Especially for laptops, this removes the need to reconnect cables daily on arriving at the workplace. The product will be available in the third quarter of 2008, D-Link spokesperson Mike Lange told pressetext. In addition to D-Link, Cisco subsidiary Linksys and Belkin already offer corresponding products. On the notebook side, Dell and Lenovo were pioneers in high-speed wireless transmission, presenting the first notebooks with integrated UWB chips last summer.