Ultrawideband task group agrees to disagree

Patrick Mannion, EE Times
(01/18/2006 8:57 PM EST)
 
MANHASSET, N.Y. — As expected, the IEEE 802.15.3a ultrawideband task group voted this week to disband, ending three years of bitter debate — and expensive travel.

Formed to define a standard for short-range wireless communications at up to 480 Mbits/s, the group has never been able to achieve a 75-percent consensus on two competing proposals: direct sequence UWB proposed by Freescale or multiband OFDM proposed by the WiMedia Alliance. The latter was led by Intel, Staccato, Wisair, Alereon and a host of consumer companies.