Wireless USB is a short-range, high-bandwidth wireless radio communication protocol version of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) created by the Wireless USB Promoter Group. It is unrelated to Wi-Fi and Cypress Wireless USB. It was maintained by the WiMedia Alliance which ceased operations in 2009. Wireless USB is based on the WiMedia Alliance's Ultra-WideBand (UWB) common radio platform, which is capable of sending 480 Mbit/s at distances up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) and 110 Mbit/s at distances up to 10 metres (33 ft). It is designed to operate in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency range, although local regulatory policies may restrict the legal operating range in some countries. Development and commercial adoption of Wireless USB declined after the dissolution of the WiMedia Alliance in 2009 and the industry's transition toward Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 60 GHz wireless technologies such as WiGig. The standard is now considered obsolete. Support for the standard was deprecated in Linux 5.4 and removed in Linux 5.7.
Overview The rationale for this specification was the overwhelming success of USB as a base for peripherals everywhere; cited reasons include extreme ease of use and low cost, which allow the existence of a ubiquitous bidirectional, fast port architecture. The definition of Ultra-WideBand (UWB) matches the capabilities and transfer rates of USB very closely (from 1.5 and 12 Mbit/s up to 480 Mbit/s for USB 2.0) and makes for a natural wireless extension of USB in the short range (3 meters, up to 10 at a reduced rate of 110 Mbit/s). Still, there was no physical bus to power the peripherals any more, and the absence of wires means that some properties that are usually taken for granted in USB systems need to be achieved by other means. The goal of the specification was to preserve the functional model of USB, based on intelligent hosts and behaviorally simple devices, while allowing it to operate in a wireless environment and keeping security on a par with the levels offered by traditional wired systems. It also seeks to be comparably power-efficient. To accomplish this, it uses an existing standard that defines a suitable physical layer and medium access control, through which the desired performance can be met, and it adds to it a convergence layer to merge both architectural efforts. W-USB was defined as a bus, albeit logical and not physical, which can simultaneously connect a host with a number of peripherals. The host divides the available bandwidth through a time-division multiple access (TDMA) strategy. It maintains the ability of USB to safely manage devices on the fly. Hosts can communicate with devices up to 10 meters away.
Uses Wireless USB had potential uses in game controllers, printers, scanners, digital cameras, portable media players, hard disk drives and USB flash drives. It was also suitable for transferring parallel video streams, using USB over ultra-wideband protocols.
Development The Wireless USB Promoter Group was formed in February 2004 to define the Wireless USB protocol. The group consisted of Agere Systems (now merged with LSI Corporation), Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, NEC Corporation, Philips Semiconductors, and Samsung. In May 2005, the Wireless USB Promoter Group announced version 1.0 of the Wireless USB specification. In June 2006, five companies showed the first multi-vendor interoperability demonstration of wireless USB. A laptop with an Intel host adapter using an Alereon PHY was used to transfer high-definition video from a Philips wireless semiconductor with a Staccato Communications PHY, all using Microsoft Windows XP drivers developed for Wireless USB. In October 2006, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved Host Wire Adapter (HWA) and Device Wire Adapter (DWA) wireless USB products from WiQuest Communications for both outdoor and indoor use. The first retail product was shipped by IOGEAR using Alereon, Intel, and NEC silicon in mid-2007. Around the same time, Belkin, Dell, Lenovo, and D-Link began shipping products that incorporated WiQuest technology. These products included embedded cards in notebook PCs or adapters for those PCs that do not currently include wireless USB. In 2008, a new wireless USB docking station from Kensington was made available through Dell. This product was unique as it was the first product on the market to support video and graphics over a USB connection by using DisplayLink USB graphics technology. Kensington released a Wireless USB Universal Docking Station in August 2008 for wireless connectivity between a notebook PC and an external monitor, speakers, and existing wired USB peripherals. Imation announced the Q4 2008 availability of a new external Wireless HDD. On March 16, 2009, the WiMedia Alliance announced transfer agreements for the WiMedia ultra-wideband (UWB) specifications. WiMedia transferred specifications to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the Wireless USB Promoter Group, and the USB Implementers Forum. After the technology transfer, the WiMedia Alliance ceased operations. In October 2009, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group dropped the development of UWB as part of the alternative MAC/PHY, Bluetooth 3.0/High Speed technology. A small, but significant, number of former WiMedia members had not and would not sign up to the necessary agreements for the intellectual property transfer. The Bluetooth group then turned its attention from UWB to 60 GHz. Version 1.1 of the Wireless USB specification, announced on 29 September 2010, is the last major revision published for this standard and remains the latest finalized version. Since then the technology has not seen further specification updates or active development, and Wireless USB is now considered obsolete with no significant hardware or standards updates after 2010. It delivered several backwards-compatible improvements: UWB upper band support for frequencies 6 GHz and above, improved power management and consumption, and support for NFC and proximity based association.
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