IEEE gives up on UWB standard - Network IT Week

IEEE gives up on UWB standard - Network IT Week

The IEEE standards group known as 802.15.3a Task Group (TG3a) held two votes, one to give up trying find a standard and the second to dissolve itself. They've left it to industry to decide which way to go.

Initially there were 23 competing standards which was reduced to two, MultiBand Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing UWB, supported by the WiMedia Alliance, and Direct Sequence-UWB, supported by the UWB Forum.

Unfortunately the two standards are completely non-interoperable.

This means that each group will push their own specifications and manufacturers in the groups will produce hardware based on that standard.

It doesn't mean UWB wont succeed, just that they'll be a VHS/Betamax war for a while.