Wireless USB, or WUSB, is a new technology that enables the speed and security of wired technology with the ease of wireless technology. Just like Wi-Fi was designed to replace the Ethernet cable, WUSB is designed to replace current USB wired technology. Eventually, you will find Wireless USB implemented in game controllers, cameras, hard drives, flash drives, printers, scanners, MP3 players, and even mobile phones. WUSB technology will work using UWB or Ultra Wide Band. UWB is a wireless communication technology that enables the transmission of large amounts of digital data in a wide spectrum of frequency bands for very low power consumption. This allows wireless technology to break free from the restrictions involved with line-of-sight wireless connections. This means that the intervening objects will not adversely affect the wireless connection as much as it currently does in some technologies such as Bluetooth. Unlike Bluetooth technology, WUSB will not require the consumer to have trouble with a pairing process and is considered more secure. It has also been shown to be faster than Bluetooth. Wireless USB performance is targeted at 480 Mbps at 3 meters and 110 Mbdps at 10 meters. It is designed to operate in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency range, although local regulations may limit this operating range for a particular country or region.
Belkin has developed a WUSB combination that requires you to connect a USB antenna to your PC and a separate wireless USB hub that has 4 normal wired USB ports. This allows the wireless USB PC to connect and communicate with whatever device is connected. In early 2011, we will begin to see laptops with built-in wireless USB antennas for use with wireless USB devices. Lenovo has announced the production of one of those units.
WUSB is a fairly mature technology that has seen its development early starting in 2004. At this time, the Wireless USB Promoter Group was formed to define the specifications involved in Wireless USB. This group consisted of organizations such as Microsoft, HP, Intel, NEC Corp., Philips, Agere Systems, and Samsung. The specification process was completed in May 2005, with initial test models produced in June 2006. With the first models available for testing by the FCC, in October 2006 we approved the first complete host cable adapter and the device cable adapter. Surprisingly, the first retail product was launched in mid-2007 by IOGear.
A powerful feature designed in the WUSB architecture is the ability to connect a maximum of 127 devices directly to a host. WUSB also supports dual function devices, or the capacity of a device when connected to a PC acts as a device, and at other times when connected to another device it acts as a limited capacity host. An example of this would be a camera when connected to a PC as a device, and yet when directly connected to a printer as a limited host. It is expected that within a year we will start to see a large number of wireless USB devices hit the market for consumers. This is exciting technology designed to help consumers become truly mobile, and I, for one, am weary of cables.