Nokia has launched a consortium to promote yet another wireless
transmission standard they call
Wibree.
Wibree? Why not. This isn't an example of a big manufacturer
looking to establish a proprietary standard so they can hog the
market for lower power wireless devices. This initiative is an open
standard for a new low power PAN or Personal Area Network.
But, wait a second. Doesn't Bluetooth fill that niche? It does
now, but there are good reasons for yet another standard. Nokia's
incentive for going back to the drawing board is to develop radio
chip sets that use an order of magnitude less power than Bluetooth
while retaining a 15 to 30 foot operating range and a data rate of
1 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz ISM band. Those were the original Bluetooth
specs, although Bluetooth 2.0 bumps up the bandwidth to 3 Mbps.
Nokia believes the low power consumption will enable
applications that use the small button type batteries to gain
wireless access. These would be things like digital watches, toys
and sports sensors. Perhaps this will also include in-the-ear
headsets much like the invisible hearing aids. Who knows, maybe a
combination hearing aid / wireless headset will be a hit with the
legions of rock music deafened baby boomers now addicted to their
cell phones.
Does Nokia really have the hubris to think they are going to
blow away the billions of Bluetooth devices deployed or in the
pipeline? I don't think so. In fact, Nokia is suggesting a
dual-mode chip that will support both Bluetooth and Wibree. This is
similar to the way that Wi-Fi chipsets support both B and G
standards. Technology advances generally start off including both
old and new standards, at least for awhile and sometimes forever.
Consider that some new personal computers still offer parallel
printer ports, floppy disk drives and PS2 keyboard and mouse
connectors, in addition to DVD, CD-ROM, USB, and FireWire.
Another interesting feature of the Wibree link layer
specification is a scheduling mechanism that transmits Wibree
traffic in-between Bluetooth transmissions. This makes it even more
likely that the dual-mode radio chips are going to proliferate,
certainly in Nokia products. Other features of the proposed
standard include encryption, ultra low power standby operation, and
simple device discovery. Initial user profiles will include sensor,
human interface device (HID) and watch.
Nokia expects to have their commercial version of the Wibree
interoperability specification available during the second quarter
of 2007. They've already got no less than Epson on-board, along
with Nordic Semiconductor, CSR and Broadcom Corporation.
The HID human interface emphasis seems particularly interesting.
Sports watches that take your pulse and blood pressure and running
shoes that track your pace and distance seem like only a start.
Perhaps soon you'll not only be able to track your kids whereabouts
by cell phone, but also know what's going on using a camera and
microphone in their watch and how they are doing physically by
biometric sensors. On the other end of the age spectrum, this
technology could also be valuable for elder care. A more sinister
application would be EEG sensors monitored through a corporate
Wireless network, so the boss would know who's REALLY sleeping
during those endless staff meetings.
T1 Rex's Business Telecom Explainer offers easy to understand
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John Shepler has been a published writer for over 30 years. With
a background in electronics engineering technology, he has worked
in a variety of industries including radio broadcast, aerospace and
manufacturing. Involved in telecommunications since 1998, he
combines his interests in writing and technology with
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T1 Rex's Business Telecom
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Copyright 2003 - 2006 by John E. Shepler
Contact John at John@T1Rex.com