With each side of the ultra-wideband technology conflict ratcheting up rhetoric and maneuvers, the turf of war is sizzling with less love and more politics.
With another voting session looming next week in Berlin, both the direct-sequence companies and their multi-band counterparts anticipate a deadlock, which has been the ongoing story of the past year.
The multi-band group is known as Multiband OFDM Alliance, and its opponent is called the Direct Sequence UWB Forum.
Ultra-wideband technology is a short-range protocol designed to eliminate wires from homes and offices and enable the transfer of multimedia applications between electronic devices like cell phones, personal digital assistants, stereos, televisions, set-top boxes and video cameras.
Freescale Semiconductor (formerly part of Motorola Inc.), which supports the single-band approach, claims to be ahead of the MBOA in developing its products, as its product recently was approved by the Federal Communications Commission.
In contrast, the MBOA last week filed for a standards waiver with the FCC. The group is asking for the regulatory body to waive the frequency-hopping requirements in its specifications. DS-UWB technology does not hop between frequencies.
Because MBOA uses frequency-hopping technology, it must follow guidelines of acceptable interference.
Stephen Wood, technology strategist for UWB with Intel Corp., one of several companies supporting the MBOA, said the MBOA product is more advanced than the FCC intended. As such, the FCC is evaluating MBOA’s specifications and products with testing, Wood explained, saying the FCC’s normal role is to determine if MBOA’s approach causes more interference than the rule requires.
“It’s a procedural step,” said Wood. “If the FCC decides it passes, the rules will be modified in consideration of what we do.”
“My questions is, why are they filing for a waiver request if they have FCC approval?” asked Martin Rofheart, director of UWB operations at Freescale. He explained that the waiver request opened up three scenarios from the FCC. “The FCC can grant a permanent waiver, a temporary waiver limited in time and market, or it can decline it in whole or in part,” he said, trying to paint a picture of MBOA’s uncertainty.
The FCC has not yet approved MBOA technology.
MBOA’s Wood said modified rules could cause more delay in fashioning out the standards. However, a delay will not stop Intel and other players in the MBOA from shipping their radio products. The battle for the market does not begin and end with securing the radio, Wood said, stressing that interoperability between major market players, especially in the consumer electronics world, holds the key to prosperity. He said MBOA players are working with WiMEDIA, an organization responsible for interoperability testing for UWB radio and applications protocols.
A number of key electronics players have agreed to use MBOA radio, Wood said, adding, “Motorola’s (Freescale’s) got to go through a process to get the other users.”
Rofheart said his company already has moved to the second step in product development, with agreements with two modules companies in Asia, GEMTEK and GlobalSun. He said the next phase is with system ODMs and the last phase is with OEM distribution of the products inside their electronic products. He said Freescale-and DS-UWB-are halfway home.
MBOA has more than 35 members, including Texas Instruments and Intel.
Freescale is seen as a lone ranger, a fact often challenged by the inability of the MBOA to garner the required 75 percent from the IEEE for standards approval.
