electronics and
these products will soon be used in home and business environments. Well also consider the rise of dual-role devices that include both host and device capabilities.
Home Usage Scenarios
ABSTRACT
mobile devices. To maintain the same usage and architecture as wired USB, the Wireless USB specification is being defined as a high-speed host-to-device connection. This will enable an easy migration path for todays wired USB solutions. Usage Models The growing use of wireless technology in PC, CE, and mobile communications products, along with the convergence of product functionalities, calls for a common wireless interconnect standard. The standard needs to work well with products and usage models from all three industries. To better understand whats driving the need for a common standard, well examine how
The Universal Serial Bus (USB), with one billion units in the installed base, is the most successful interface in PC history. Projections are for 3.5 billion interfaces shipped by 2006. Benefiting from exceptionally strong industry support from all market segments, USB continues to evolve as new technologies and products come to market. It is already the de facto interconnect for PCs, and has proliferated into consumer electronics (CE) and mobile devices as well. USB enjoys strong brand recognition, has a well-recognized logo, and is supported by an experienced governing body the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). Wireless USB will build on the success of wired USB, bringing USB technology into the wireless future. Usage will be targeted at PCs and PC peripherals, consumer
The trend towards smaller form factors, portability and mobility in consumer electronics devices has led to the emergence of new classes of products. These products have rich functionality, multimedia capabilities, and require connection to other AV devices for display, editing, listening, sharing, and downloading of content. Within the home, for instance, a family may have a digital video camcorder, digital still camera, portable MP3 player, PDA, tablet PC, wireless speakers, and personal video display device.
BroadbandVideo/Data
Access Office HomeCluster
Phone
Theater Home Cluster
BroadbandData/Voice Access Networking/Conn ectiRange
Remote Control
vity
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Wireless Wired
PC Family Cluster Audio
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Wired LAN Wireless LAN
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Figure 1. Home usage scenarios that could be unwired with Wireless USB.
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Some Top Candidates for
Wireless USB Devices in the Home:
Person al (PV Video Record er
Entertainment PC Digital Camcorder Digital Still Camera HDTV DVD-RW/CD-RW (Recorder/Player) External Storage Device (HDD) Game Console MP3 Player Set Top Box
Each of these portable devices has a need to connect to other devices such as PCs or stationary consumer electronics products, such as stereos, HDTVs, video recorders, enter-tainment PCs, or the like. All these devices would benefit from the ability to connect without cables. Think, for instance, about the number of devices in your home and the tangle of wires between them. Wireless USB would eliminate these wires and enable devices to wirelessly connect to each other.
Naturally, the CE environment will have high expectations for performance. Many consumer usage models will center on demanding streaming media distribution using compression algorithms. Typical video delivery with standard SDTV/DVD can consume between 3 to 7 Mbps, while HDTV can require between 19 to 24 Mbps. A point distribution technology
like Wireless USB with its projected effective bandwidth of 480 Mbps, could manage multiple HDTV streams while still having the capacity to support other high-bandwidth data streams. Host buffering could enable a network backbone to effectively distribute content to all distribution hosts, enhancing the quality experience for all users. The Wireless USB specification will be an effective way to ensure that the delivered convenience and quality of service meets typical consumer entertainment expectations.
Office/Business Usage Scenarios
Connectivity issues and other inconveniences of wired connections can hurt productivity and slow the adoption of new devices within the work environment. Users of mobile computers and PDAs particularly face connection challenges as they move from place to place and want to use printers and other devices. Wireless USB could simplify their lives while providing a time-saving, high-speed connection that enhances productivity (see Figure 2). In this section, we give some typical scenarios of how Wireless USB could enhance connectivity in the office. Dedicated Office Services
Executives, managers and heavy users need faster, dedi-cated services in their office rather than those shared on the network. With Wireless USB, devices such as inkjet and laser printers, scanners, external storage devices, and PC cameras can quickly connect and exchange data at high speed. Top Wireless USB uses will probably include: simultaneous and frequent-use mass storage for data back-up, printer connectivity, scanner connectivity, and PDA or cell phone synchronization.
Printing to Enterprise Printer
For office workers that are very mobile and frequent differ-ent areas of an enterprise, the option of easily printing from a mobile platform (notebook PC, PDA, cell phone, etc.)
