Pulselink rolls software-defined UWB platform; faces ITU resistance

Pulselink rolls software-defined UWB platform; faces ITU resistance

Patrick Mannion
May 11, 2004 (4:00 PM)
URL: http://www.commsdesign.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=20300485

MANHASSET, N.Y. — Pulselink has received test silicon for its media-independent, ultrawideband software-defined cognitive radio (SDCR). The silicon will enable wireless, power line and cable UWB transmissions to be generated from a single chip.

The company plans to conduct private showings of the chip, along with various demonstrations of its UWB technology, at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Global Conference on Ultra Wideband June 9-18 in Boston.

In the lead up to that conference, Pulselink (Carlsbad, Calif.) last week presented two papers to the ITU-R's 1-8 task group in which it pushed the concept of the common signaling mode (CSM). CSM allows multiple, disparate UWB radios to coexist and is now part of the DS-UWB proposal before the IEEE 802.15.3a task group.

The Multiband-OFDM Alliance (MBOA), which has a competing proposal before that IEEE task group, opposes CSM.

The ITU 1-8 task group represents U.S. interests in the ITU, and it rejected both CSM papers on the grounds that the ITU is not chartered to enable co-existence between devices. Instead, it is concerned with determining spectral power limits and other guidelines that ensure incumbent services remain unaffected by newer ones.

"The ITU is a tough group, and [Pulselink] got beaten up fairly badly," said Gary Anderson, chairman and CEO of Uraxs Communications Inc. (Haverhill, Mass.) and chairman of the Boston ITU TG 1-8 meeting's organizing committee.

"Nonetheless, they fared pretty well given that it was their first time to present before the ITU."

Undeterred, John Santhoff, chief technical officer at Pulselink, said he will make a CSM presentation at the Boston meeting. Pulselink is a cosponsor of the meeting. "Nothing happened . . . that deters our presentation of the CSM at the ITU or our promotion of it," he said.

Anderson agreed, noting that it's common for first-time papers to require multiple rewrites before being accepted by the ITU. "We're still trying to see how the CSM can fit into the ITU," he said.

The SDCR chip set is a major step by Pulselink in its efforts to design a completely UWB-networked home, both for last-mile access and inside the home. The chip was implemented in Jazz Semiconductor's 120-nm process and has target rates of 1 Gbit/s for wireless, up to 200 Mbits/s over power lines and up to 1 Gbit/s downstream over existing CATV networks — with hundreds of megabits/s upstream.

Santhoff said he expects future revisions of the chip set to support Wi-Fi, WiMax or a short-range wireless UWB standard.

The IEEE 802.15.3a task group is meeting in Orlando, Fla., in its continuing effort to forge a consensus on the UWB spec. A second vote Monday (May 10) on MBOA's proposal failed again to reach the necessary 75 percent needed for ratification. The vote, 60-40 in favor, again fell short. The group will now consider two proposals: MBOA's and the UWB Forum's direct-sequence UWB. Deliberations will continue on Thursday (May 13).