One of the largely unforeseen consequences of developing UWB transceiver products outside the IEEE specification process is that many of the performance measurements for future RF chips are not discussed in a neutral environment; this includes not only the companies who will manufacture and sell the chipsets but also universities and government research labs who all discuss the pitfalls and issues that can arise. Once UWB development left the IEEE and moved into a purely corporate arena, pitfalls and weaknesses were not openly addressed and, thus, are unlikely to be given the opportunity to be fixed. It appears that the development of MBOFDM UWB at this stage is largely political, and not an open, technical endeavor.Therein lies the difference between the WiMedia Alliance and the Certified Wireless USB I/F, and the RF components based on the IEEE 802.15.4 specification which have been adopted by the ZigBee Alliance. The ‘ZigBee’ component-level products on the market today are differentiated, even though they all adhere to both the IEEE 802.15.4 specification and the ZigBee standard. Depending on a given application, one particular vendor’s chips are better suited than another’s, due to a tuning of various performance metrics to match that application’s requirements. The components that are beginning to emerge from the UWB-focused standards groups are all focused on the same applications and the various performance characteristics are largely unavailable to the public. This means that the UWB components are not yet being sold except to very early customers, but it also means that their performance is probably wanting. Thus, not only is UWB still a pre-emergent wireless protocol but once it does enter into the marketplace in reality, it is very likely that other technologies such as WLAN and Bluetooth will have taken its place in the applications currently being targeted by many of the UWB component companies. At that point, it will be simply a question of whether the force and impetus represented by Intel can carry UWB into the marketplace. For those companies who placed all their bets on MB-OFDM taking over the market, it may be time to look to new wireless horizons.
