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Ultra Wideband's Ultrawide Ambition: Page 4 of 5

FIRE WIRELESS

Although USB is important, it's far from UWB's only proposed Application layer. The specification is extensible to support almost any protocol, and so far the WiMedia Alliance has specified three more: native IP data, the consumer-focused Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), and wireless IEEE 1394 (FireWire), a protocol designed by Apple for transferring large multimedia files.

The precedents for this aren't encouraging. When cell phone vendors developed Bluetooth, they standardized nine different Application-layer protocols, several of which were never adopted. With the first WiMedia hardware supporting only Wireless USB and the other protocols not due until next year, they too might never see widespread use.

Respond to Chief Technology Editor Andy Dornan at http://blog.networkmagazine.com.

Lowdown

Promise: No more wires. UWB will first enable high-speed file transfers between any two devices in close proximity to each other, then replace the cables linking PCs to monitors. It will eventually enable self-organizing meshes.