As the battle continues between the two ultrawideband (UWB) camps for standardization, the multiband OFDM alliance (MBOA) has formed a special interest group to develop specifications based on its version of UWB high-speed, short-range wireless communications. The MBOA-SIG announcement will come at a press conference next week at the Intel Developers Forum. The MBOA-SIG promoter companies include Alereon, Hewlett Packard, Intel Corporation, Nokia, Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics (SAIT), Staccato Communications, Sony, Texas Instruments and Wisair. Concurrently, the MBOA will also announce that its specifications for a physical layer (PHY) are complete and that specifications for the Media Access Control layer (MAC), designed to enhance mobility for personal electronic devices, are progressing quickly with completion expected by year end. Upon completion, the specifications will be made available to member companies.

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"Our membership of more than 170 companies includes the leading semiconductor, personal computing, mobile phone and consumer electronics companies," said Stephen Wood, UWB strategist at Intel and MBOA co-founder.

"We have established relations with Wireless USB Promoters Group and the WiMedia Alliance to provide the PHY and MAC layers to them, and we expect more to follow. What this means for MBOA-SIG companies is that they will be able provide standards-based, high-speed UWB products that will replace the rats' nests of wires that fill their customers' homes and desktops."

The MBOA MAC and PHY specifications, adopted by the WiMedia Alliance and the Wireless USB Promoters Group, will serve as the common radio platform for those industry standards. "Wireless USB, the first major application for UWB, will use the MBOA's common radio platform, based on Texas Instrument's original multiband OFDM proposal," said Yoram Solomon, general manager of consumer connectivity solutions for Texas Instruments and MBOA co-founder.

"Using UWB, we have the ability to replace frequently used connections and synchronize or stream information between devices such as digital cameras, MP3 players, PCs and printers. And using the MBOA's common radio platform, we can ensure co-existence and interoperability among multiple wirelessly connected devices."

Meanwhile, last week, MBOA-SIG filed a request for a waiver of Part 15 of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) rules regarding UWB systems that employ MB-OFDM modulation techniques. MBOA-SIG requests that the average emission levels from UWB MB-OFDM transmitters, which are sequenced between three frequency bands “according to one of four deterministic and fixed hopping patterns,” be measured under normal operating conditions instead of with the band sequencing stopped. MBOA-SIG argues that this waiver would help this new technology to compete with rival impulse radio approach based on direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA).