USB Going Wireless

NathanJ writes "Device Forge is running a technical whitepaper on wireless USB. The article states that 'Already there has been some progress with the definition of a WUSB specification with a targeted bandwidth of 480 Mbps. This specification maintains the same usage and architecture as wired USB with a high-speed host-to-device connection.' And that 'the WUSB host can logically connect 127 WUSB devices.' So what am I going to do with my Bluetooth desktop?" Update Holy Deja vu batman... here is an earlier Slashdot article that I missed from 3 weeks ago. Oops.

Low Power

[satterth]

Bluetooth will still live on in the Low Power applications.

what makes this different than bluetooth?

[bsDaemon]

what makes this different than bluetooth, and what really are the benefits of wireless keyboards and mice and stuff anyway? Sure, I can sit far away from the computer, but then i cannot see to read the monitor.

Powered?

[MalaclypseTheYounger]

Uh, one of the reasons I like USB is that it's a POWERED connection. Are we going to be sending energy through wireless connections with this WUSB somehow? And how much lead suit protection do I need to wear to not grow a third eye or extra thumbs when using it?

Ummm... not quite

[merlin_jim]

This specification maintains the same usage and architecture as wired USB

Well unless they've been reading a ton of Tesla, I would call it the same usage or architecture as wired USB. Because USB is not only data but power, and AFAIK, wireless power distribution is neither a commodity technology nor tested to be safe in close quarters with humans...

The impact is that now I will have to turn devices on and off, worry about batteries, and power cords. Best case is everything gets (expensive) AAAs. Worst case is everything gets a power cord. If I'm using wireless USB, why would I want a power cord? I mean I'm not too keen on trading plugging in one thing for plugging in another.

And I've used wireless mice. They become erratic way before the batteries die. I like my HIDs to be precise and reliable, thank you very much...

Why bluetooth has failed

[Morgahastu]

in compairison to standard wired USB.

Bluetooth is only useful for a very limited number of applications on a desktop computer (or even a laptop). A mouse, keyboard, and maybe a bluetooth cell phone or PDA (which very little people have). It's not worth the cost of having to buy a bluetooth setup or for manufacturers to include it on the motherboard.

If it had higher bandwidth then it could be useful for printers, scanners, mp3 players, hard drives, etc.

If wireless usb does provide the speeds they claim then it will be a huge success. The U in USB does infact standard for Universal, and that's what bluetooth needed to be really successful.

Oh and not to mention bluetooth support is awful in windows.

Security is going to be huge here with that rate.

[michael path]

Awesome idea, 480Mbps wirelessly.

Security is going to be paramount here, but the spec says:

Wireless connections, on the other hand, due to environmental characteristics, may establish connection paths that are not obvious. In fact, it may not be obvious when a device is connected.

It goes on to suggest a remedy of configuring security at the time of installation. Should this technology exist in the future, that's going to pose a tremendous stumbling block to assume home users, where most USB device usage occurs, would do that. It's a step back from that plug-and-play that they're used to.

I'd keep it

[Valdrax]

Does USB still have the limitation of dividing the bus' time evenly between all devices regardless of how much bandwidth they're using? I remember that that was one of the arguments in the USB 2.0 / Firewire flamewars.

If so, I'd keep my keyboard and mouse off the bus. Besides, there's no reason to throw away working hardware.

Absolutely

[2names]

but then, how do you recharge it? My USB devices recharge when I wire them up, will WUSB be able to (eventually) do the same?

Applications

[crow]

I can only think of a few useful applications of this technology:

Web cams: You want to put in a camera to monitor the baby's room (or the driveway, or whatever). Provided the range is sufficient, this may be a decent way of handling it (though other means exist already).

Networking: It's higher-bandwidth than the current 802.11 standards. The question (as others have mentioned) is the range.

Laptop base stations: You can leave your devices plugged in for power, and you don't have to hook anything up when you bring your laptop into the room.

Any word on security?

[Phoenixhunter]

Last I heard the preliminary WUSB standard was quite lacking in terms of security. Steal your co-workers entire Mp3 collection in only 15 minutes!

Re:It'll take some work...

[gmiley01]

This brings up the question tho: Will wireless USB be plug and play (metaphorically speaking I guess)? I mean, will your WUSB hub detect devices in the area and automagically set them up? This could be interesting to see. Immagine WarUSBing.

Re:Anyone interested in WUSB.Com?

[RicJohnson]

Could Someone please MIRROR my poor little Server before the /. effect breaks it

Re:Answer:

[Goth Biker Babe]

Bluetooth is well established in Europe so I don't see it disappearing all that soon.

I'm writing this on my laptop using WiFi to connect to my broadband net connection. Last weekend I stayed with my parents and used the same laptop via a bluetooth dongle and GPRS on my mobile phone.

I use bluetooth to sync that phone with the laptop and to transfer photos from the phone to the laptop.

On the drive home I noted many other drivers with bluetooth headsets on their ears. If I meet someone we exchange contact details via bluetooth. My housemate controls the MP3 player on her iBook from her phone using Bluetooth. I sync my phone to my PDA via Bluetooth.

I can see the usefulness of a high speed Bluetooth like system but there are applications that just don't need a faster connection and for them Bluetooth works just fine. Also, I'm not sure about the US, but in Europe it seems that Joe/Josephine Public have picked it up just fine and it's not restricted to geeks.

I can see

What frequency band?

[Monkelectric]

My WIFI setup at home already clobbers my cordless phone, and my low-power light bulbs emit interference and clobber them both. Now I need to cram bluetooth and WUSB into the same spectrum?

Bluetooth is about low power consumption

[Qwavel]

People seem to be missing the point regarding bluetooth: it's most important characteristic (in my opinion) is it's low power consumption. This is what makes it so suitable for cell phones, pda's, headsets, etc.

In deciding whether WUSB will replace bluetooth, you need to compare the power consumption of the two, not just the bandwidth.

WUSB - How? And more importantly, WHY?

[bechthros]

OK, I've got a (hypothetical) PC with WUSB printer, external hard drive, MP3 player, MIDI controller, and mouse. The only thing is, so does my roommate, and his is 2 feet from mine. So, it seems like either there must be some sort of setup involved (like telling the device which PC it's looking for) in which case the just-plug-it-in-and-it-works aspect of USB is negated, or else you're in for lots of high-speed device conflicts.

And on the tinfoil-hat tip, what's to keep Uncle Sam from driving by on the street with a WUSB equipped laptop and scanning all my files on that WUSB external drive? If my cable modem is WUSB, what's to keep the govt from just watching
everything I do online ever?

And why, if I might ask, is this necessary? Is the 2 seconds you spend pluggin the cord into the device really that important? Is it really that hard to plug the thumbdrive into an actual USB slot? I mean, we don't complain about plugging our headphones into our walkmans. You plug them in, it takes .5 seconds and then you're done. With the above multiple-device/multiple-PC scenario, it seems like it might be considerably more trouble to configure the devices themselves then to just plug 'em in and not worry about it. Are we really that lazy? Do we really need wireless *everything*?

BLah blah blah - its for harddrives and such.

[bonez_net11]

WirelessUSB isn't meant for keyboards and mice really. It's built around attaching storage and other high-speed current-USB devices without all the damned wires. Just think, that FireWire or USB2.0 harddrive you have won't need the wire anymore. You won't have to find plugs in certain areas or string wires through hoops anymore. As more wireless adds on, the mess under my computer (and some others in the office) gets smaller. Things are getting better. I just wish they'd stick with one F'in standard. Why can't this be Bluetooth 2.0 so that all my current bluetooth stuff still works? It sure would be nice. But no, I'll have bluetooth plus WUSB at some point. Oh great, another piece of hardware to buy!

Re:Need it on my stereo receiver

[James McP]

From my reading, you need ~14Mbps for 1080i which includes multichannel audio, but lets assume 15Mbps for 5.1 audio. WUSB has 480Mbps; shave off 20% for management and we've got 384Mbps of usable bandwidth which is some 23 HDTV channels. I *think* that's enough bandwidth.

As far as the switches, I don't like adding any more interfaces than needed as each one adds more degradation. I may or may not be able to notice it but it still exists. My receiver has a good array of ports (I bought it with that in mind) but it's about maxed out.

Yes, I know WUSB will have some degradation to it with interference. But since I don't plan on using all the bandwidth it can step down to a more redundant mode, broadcasting my data on multiple channels to ensure it arrives.

So I reiterate my desire to see AV devices with WUSB built in.

Re:Your Bluetooth desktop?

[dave420]

You don't know what bluetooth is, do you? It's to replace small, low-bandwidth wires that clutter desktops, and cheap enough to integrate into almost any electronics, without raising prices much. Mice and keyboards are two of devices bluetooth was made for. Headphones and microphones are two more. All the wires for those devices can be replaced by a small adapter that costs just a few dollars.

Just because it's wireless, don't think it's the same as other wireless busses. Just the same that wireless LANs != bluetooth, wireless USB != bluetooth.

If you're gonna bag on a technology, at least figure out what it does first. Oh, and it'll still work when WUSB hits the shelves, funnily enough.

One example we won't be seeing with WUSB any time soon - when I sit at my desk with my phone in my pocket, I can get my voicemail through my headphones without getting the phone out of my pocket. I can send SMSs the same way. Even if WUSB could do that, we're not going to see it for years (and certainly not at that price). Bluetooth is here, it's in nearly every phone you can buy, and in most notebooks.