Defined and supported by the WiMedia™ Alliance, WiMedia refers to the ultra-wideband (UWB) common radio platform that enables high-speed (480Mbps and beyond), low power consumption multimedia data transfers in a wireless personal area network (WPAN).
The WiMedia UWB common radio platform incorporates media access control (MAC) layer and physical (PHY) layer specifications based on multiband orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MB-OFDM). WiMedia UWB is optimized for the personal computer (PC), consumer electronics (CE), mobile device and automotive market segments. ECMA-368 and ECMA-369 are international ISO-based specifications for the WiMedia UWB common radio platform.
A not-for-profit open industry association, the WiMedia Alliance leads the market in commercializing UWB by enabling and promoting the rapid adoption, regulation, standardization and multi-vendor compliance and interoperability of UWB worldwide. Alliance board members include Alereon, CSR, Intel, Nokia, NXP, Samsung Electronics, Staccato Communications, Stonestreet One, and Wisair.
The Alliance's membership is comprised of the global brand leaders in each major UWB-related industry, including nearly all of the major semiconductor companies, and represents more than $250 million USD in venture capital. Together, the member companies and member organizations (including software and test) form the industry's most complete UWB ecosystem-enabling all necessary steps from standardization to productization.
WiMedia Alliance promotes and enables the rapid adoption and standardization of UWB worldwide.
To achieve that goal, the Alliance has several objectives such as promoting UWB spectrum regulations worldwide, and establishing a recognizable WiMedia brand that indicates a device is WiMedia-compliant and can interoperate with other WiMedia-certified devices from various manufacturers. What's more, the Alliance also develops specifications that support multiple applications (e.g., Certified Wireless USB, Bluetooth, Wireless 1394 and TCP/IP) and allow these applications to operate peacefully within the same WPAN over the common radio platform.
Within the WiMedia MAC specification is the MAC Convergence Architecture (WiMCA) that allows applications to share UWB resources. WiMCA defines a number of policies, including channel-time utilization; secure association, authentication and data transfer; device and WPAN management; quality of service; discovery of services; and power management.
The WiMedia Network (WLP) is a protocol adaptation layer (PAL) that builds on the WiMedia UWB common radio platform to augment the convergence platform with TCP/IP services.
A wireless personal area network (WPAN) is an ad-hoc network centered around a person or object that is stationary or in motion. Reaching distances up to 10 meters and beyond, a WiMedia WPAN will allow a significant number of digital devices within range to communicate with each other.
An ad-hoc network (or a "spontaneous network") is a network in which the connected devices are only temporarily part of that network. For example, mobile devices remain part of an ad-hoc network only while they are within range of the other networked devices.
Why is WiMedia the UWB platform of choice for wireless multimedia applications?
Ultra-wideband technology has the inherent capability to optimize wireless connectivity between multimedia devices within a WPAN. The WiMedia UWB common radio platform is unique in that no other existing wireless standard can fulfill the market's stringent requirements such as low cost, low power consumption, small-form factor, high bandwidth and multimedia QoS support.
The WiMedia UWB common radio platform presents numerous technical advantages that clearly make it the best UWB solution. For instance, the Alliance's scheduling medium-access technique offers the industry's only viable solution to operating different wireless applications in the same network-thereby providing consumers with a choice.
Additionally, the WiMedia MAC and PHY specifications, as published in Ecma-368, are intentionally designed to adapt to various requirements set by global regulatory bodies. Considering, manufacturers needing to meet regulations in various countries can do so easily and cost-effectively.
Some other application-friendly features include the reduced level of complexity per node, long battery life, support of multiple power management modes and higher spatial capacity.
Non-technical advantages of WiMedia UWB are largely related to the Alliance's membership composition. The world's leading CE, PC and mobile device companies actively support the WiMedia UWB platform, exemplifying its importance and position in the industry. Together with leading semiconductor, software, component and test companies, the member companies and member organizations form the complete ecosystem necessary to build and deliver the UWB market.
Will the WiMedia UWB common radio platform replace other wireless standards?
No. IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi™), IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth®), and IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee™) standards are complementary to WiMedia UWB as they serve unique market segments with different wireless bandwidth, range, battery life and cost requirements.
What types of applications are envisioned for this high performance radio?
The CE, PC, mobile device and automotive marketplaces have many applications requiring very high-bandwidth wireless connectivity over a short range (up to 10 m) personal area network. Anticipated early applications include the exchange of media content over high-data consumer electronics devices including MP3 players, personal media players (PMPs), set-top-boxes, digital cameras, hard-drives, printers/scanners, home-theater equipment, mobile phones, personal computers and video gaming platforms, just to name a few.
Will WiMedia-based products be able to operate in the same WPAN as other WPAN/WLAN standards such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi?
WiMedia-based products are designed to coexist with other wireless services including WPAN or wireless local area network (WLAN) standards by ensuring minimal out-of-band emissions and controllable in-band emissions. These two capabilities are fundamental benefits of the WiMedia MB-OFDM PHY and MAC specifications.
When will WiMedia-based products be commercially available? When will they be certified?
WiMedia Alliance members have already announced semiconductor products and reference designs. WiMedia Compliance & Interoperability Workshops are scheduled quarterly throughout 2006, beginning in the first quarter. The Alliance will also develop test specifications for WiMedia PHYs as building blocks and for WiMedia-based end-products. Additional test specifications will be introduced as necessary.
The Alliance expects that first certification of WiMedia PHYs will occur at the end of Q106, first certification of application building blocks (silicon and modules) at the end of Q206, and first certification of consumer products building on the WiMedia common radio platform at the end of Q306.
With more than 2 billion legacy wired USB connections in the world today, USB is the de facto standard in the PC industry. Soon, these same, fast, interoperable connections will become available in the wireless world, with the introduction of Certified Wireless USB from the USB-IF.
Certified Wireless USB is the new wireless extension to USB that combines the speed and security of wired technology with the ease-of-use of wireless technology. Wireless connectivity has enabled a mobile lifestyle filled with conveniences for mobile computing users. Certified Wireless USB will support robust high-speed wireless connectivity by utilizing the WiMedia UWB common radio platform. UWB technology offers a solution for high bandwidth, low cost, low power consumption, and physical size requirements of next-generation CE devices. Certified Wireless USB is the first high-speed wireless personal interconnect technology to meet the needs of multimedia CE, PC peripherals, and mobile devices. Certified Wireless USB will preserve the functionality of wired USB while also unwiring the cable connection and providing enhanced support for streaming media CE devices and peripherals. Certified Wireless USB performance is targeted at 480Mbps at 3 meters and 110Mbps at 10 meters. For more information, please visit http://www.usb.org/developers/wusb/.
What is the 1394 Trade Association Wireless Working Group?
The 1394 Trade Association is an industry association that promotes the development of next generation 1394 standards including wireless extensions. The Wireless Working Group is developing a Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) to the WiMedia Alliance common radio platform for its wireless version of 1394. There is active collaboration and formal endorsement of the WiMedia Alliance by the 1394 Trade Association. The 1394TA web page is http://www.1394ta.org.
What other industry protocols can reside on top of the WiMedia UWB common radio platform?
In addition to Certified Wireless USB, Wireless 1394 and TCP/IP, many other industry protocols can reside on top of the WiMedia UWB platform. Those include Bluetooth®, Ethernet, DVI and HDMI. Presently, the WiMedia PHY specification has an over-the-air uncoded capability of more than 480 Mbps; the specification is highly scalable and will ultimately support wireless DVI and HDMI, operating at Gbps data rates.
