UWB, Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.3

Ultrawideband will not replace Bluetooth for short-range communications, because Bluetooth is a complete, end-to-end communications standard, whereas UWB is merely a radio technology that can be used as part of an overall standard. Bluetooth defines how data is managed, formatted and physically carried over a wireless personal-area network (WPAN). However, designers expect that future Bluetooth implementations will be built on top of UWB signals.

802.15.3 is the IEEE standard for a high-data-rate WPAN designed to provide sufficient quality of service for the real-time distribution of content such as video and music. It is ideally suited for a home multimedia wireless network. The original standard uses a traditional carrier-based 2.4-GHz radio as the physical transmission layer.

802.15.3a, a follow-on standard still in the formative stages, will define an alternative physical layer. Current proposals based on UWB will provide more than 110Mbit/sec. at a distance of 10 meters and 480Mbit/sec. at 2 meters. This will allow the streaming of high-definition video between media servers and high-definition monitors, as well as the extremely fast transfer of files between servers and portable devices.