Section 5.9. UWB for PC-Oriented Applications

5.9. UWB for PC-Oriented Applications

UWB has much to offer PC networking as a complement to Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g) because of its ad hoc and quality-of-service qualities needed for media and peripherals. While UWB will appear first in the home for wireless PAN applications, we believe it will find its way into corporate networks as well as home networks over the next few years in notebooks, desktops, and printers. Eventually, UWB will also likely be used in next-generation access points and switches/routers.

Wireless Personal Area Networks

UWB will start out as a wireless PAN multimedia-focused solution and penetrate the home networking market first. The trade-offs between power consumption, data rate, and range have also kept most UWB developers focused on shorter ranges in order to comply with current FCC rules while providing very high bit rates.

Wireless Local Area Networks

While most of the initial market focus will be on wireless PAN applications, there is no reason why UWB cannotor will notbe used for longer-range applications as well. It is important to remember that UWB is a physical layer technology, which makes it a likely PHY for future Wi-Fi standards such as 802.11n, which will support a data rate up to 108 Mbps. Initial target markets for these UWB-based WLAN chip sets are airports as well as homeland security applications. UWB's unique advantages for wireless LANs include the following:

• Greater data rates and payload capacities for WLAN applications than existing Wi-Fi or alternate UWB WPAN-only solutions

• Enhanced security

• Positioning capabilities

• Signal coexistence with other RF technologies

According to ON World's projection, UWB chip sets for PC-oriented products will increase at nearly a 170 percent CAGR to 106 million units shipped in 2009, up from approximately 2 million in 2005, as shown in Table 5-3 and Figure 5-6.

Table 5-3. UWB chip sets in PC applications, 20042009 (millions of units)

	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
15.3a UWB	0	2	6	12	32	90
WLAN UWB	0	0.04	0.6	2	6	16
Total	0	2.04	6.6	14	38	106

Figure 5-6. UWB chip sets in PC applications, 20042010