The UWB Forum, a newly formed industry group that promotes ultra wideband technology, has signed up 30 member companies. The group expressed support for the Common Signaling Mode (CSM) initiative, which promises to enable the coexistence of multiple ultra-wideband solutions entering the market over the next several years.
The Common Signaling Mode (CSM) technique has been designed to provide an etiquette for different classes of devices (MultiBand-OFDM, Direct Sequence-UWB, and others) to communicate with each other in order to coordinate their actions and interoperate within the same wireless network.
In addition, Forum members are fully supportive of the IEEE 802.15.3 Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer and several members have working 802.15.3 MAC implementations demonstrating wireless 1394, video streaming, and IP-based applications. The Forum expects to release a UWB specification compatible with the IEEE 802.15.3 MAC in June 2004, and several silicon providers are preparing to release additional application specific implementations of this specification later in 2004 and in 2005. A number of consumer electronics companies are also expected to release products based on DS-UWB in the second half of 2004.
Members of the UWB Forum are working closely with regional and national regulatory bodies to ensure that UWB solutions satisfy requirements designed to prevent unnecessary interference with existing spectrum users. http://www.uwbforum.org
