Good Day, BWIA is a light compendium of news, items of interest, irreverent commentary, and occasional light analysis relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access (including WiMAX, public access Wi-Fi, etc.).
Today is yet another slow news day for Broadband Wireless Internet Access-related news as the US slowly returns to its usual frenetic pace after the Christmas / New Year holidays. But the drumbeat is increasing in preparation for the gigantic Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next week. One of the more interesting wireless-related announcements to filter out is that a new consortium, called WirelessHD, has been formed to standardize a wireless method of communicating between High Definition Video components within a household. Interesting because WirelessHD plans to use the little-known 60 GHz band which (in the US) spans from 57-64 GHz - a full 7 GHz of license-exempt spectrum.
Contrast this with a puny 83.5 MHz in the heavily-used (and abused) 2.4 GHz band. One major motivation for using 60 GHz is that there's enough spectrum available that WirelessHD can transmit signals without the latency induced by compression and decompression. I'm not sure why it's so important not to have latency within the household other than "less latency is always good"; there's going to be latency induced from the "live" sources of HD content - satellite and cable video service providers compress their HD content, and I don't see how latency concerns factor into playing HD content from a stored media, be it a settop box or HD optical disc.
Besides no latency, I see two prime reasons why WirelessHD might succeed. The first is that that having a standardized wireless connection between video components will considerably simplify the daunting task of connecting components of a household audio/video entertainment system. (Daunting for many, impossible for some. CBS' 60 Minutes re-ran a pretty funny, and poignant segment last night called Get Me The Geeks, and one of the hilarious quotes was (paraphrased) "Some people say that you need to have an engineering degree from MIT to make this stuff work together. Well, I do have an engineering degree from MIT, and I still need help to make this stuff work together.") With wireless, at least there's the possibility that the components themselves can "autodiscover" other components and only require a manual "authorization" with the components themselves handling issues of protocols, formats, etc. that previously required correct cabling, compatible signals on all components, correct connections, multiple units without enough connections, etc.
The second reason WirelessHD might succeed is that it offers enough spectrum to support multiple channels in use simultaneously within a household, which is entirely feasible - a settop box may well be streaming one HDTV signal to a digital recorder and another HDTV signal to a display, all while a HDTV disc is being played to another display.
I say WirelessHD might succeed because we've seen similar efforts in the past to create standards for in-home media device wireless networking such as Ultra Wideband, which used "spectrum underlay" (very low power and "extreme spread spectrum" techniques, operating from 3.1 - 10.6 GHz. To date, UWB technology, though years old now and fully authorized by the FCC, simply hasn't amounted to much, though there continue to be advancements.
The obligatory BWIA tie-in to the announcement of WirelessHD is that the high volumes of consumer electronics means that economies of scale will result in cheaper 60 GHz components that, unlike UWB, can be put to use in cheaper, faster, better systems for BWIA (and, of course, faster and better Wireless Local Area Networks for household and enterprise use). I've previously speculated that incorporating 60 GHz links could result in Metropolitan "Wi-Fi" networks providing better, faster, cheaper connectivity than fiber.
Clearwire Modem Weather Report - Hollywood Hill, Woodinville, Washington - No idea this morning; I've spent the morning working from my favorite Tully's Coffee store at Hollywood Hill in Woodinville, Washington (via my Sprint Nextel (wireless telephony 1xEV-DO Rev. A) connection as the Tully's (free!) Wi-Fi service went a bit wonky, possibly from nearby Wi-Fi systems causing interference.
FIOS coming to Hollywood Hill I spotted a fiber construction crew within a half-mile of my home a few days ago and stopped to ask an underground utilities surveyor if the work being done was for Verizon's FIOS service, and he confirmed that was the case. It could be quite a while before FIOS service is actually extended up my street from the main road where it's being installed. But the promise of 15 Mbps Internet access at my home is very, very tempting. (I would have provided a link to FIOS, but Verizon's web site seems to be having a apocalyptic fit from either the script-blocking software on my browser, or the fact that I'm connected to the Internet via Sprint Nextel (wireless telephony 1xEV-DO Broadband Wireless Internet Access.)
By Steve Stroh
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(Last updated 2007-11-06)
This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).
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