Current connectivity solutions are primarily Bluetooth and ultra wideband USB. Bluetooth is a wireless protocol utilizing short-range communications technology facilitating data transmissions over short distances from fixed and/or mobile devices, creating wireless personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth was developed to create a single digital wireless protocol, capable of connecting multiple devices and overcoming issues arising from their synchronization. Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, telephones, laptops, personal computers, printers, GPS receivers, digital cameras, and video game consoles, over a secure, globally unlicensed Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) 2.4 GHz short-range radio frequency bandwidth.
Wireless USB is a short-range, high-bandwidth wireless radio communication protocol, based on the WiMedia Alliance's Ultra Wideband(UWB) common radio platform, which is capable of sending 480 Mbit/s at distances up to 3 meters and 110 Mbit/s at up to 10 meters. It was designed to operate in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency range. Wireless USB is used in game controllers, printers, scanners, digital cameras, MP3 players, hard disks and flash drives.. It is also suitable for transferring parallel video streams.
Wireless USB and Bluetooth are two different protocols trying to accomplish two entirely different goals. Wireless USB is a high bandwidth wireless protocol with a smaller range than WiFi (and larger bandwidth, and a much reduced power profile), but with higher transfer rates than Bluetooth. Bluetooth has advantages compared to Wireless USB when it comes to connection establishment. Wireless USB does not have service level security and service discovery. Bluetooth has long experience with connection establishment so a connection can be established from any device. In Wireless USB connection establishment can only be done from the device side.
By Svenn-Tore Larsen, CEO, Nordic Semiconductor Recent news items report that Wi-Fi, based on the IEEE802.11a, b or g protocol and best known for its application in Local Area Networks (LANs), is extending its reach into Personal Area Networks (PAN), challenging the future of Bluetooth wireless technology.