[IP] Summary of MIT/VLAB UWB

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@warpspeed.com>

[Note:  This item comes from reader Mark Laubach.  DLH]

At 14:26 -0800 2/19/03, Mark Laubach wrote:
>From: Mark Laubach <mark@broadbandphysics.com>
>To: dewayne@warpspeed.com
>Subject: Summary of MIT/VLAB UWB
>Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 14:26:24 -0800
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>
>Hi Dewayne,
>
>I attended the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab event last night with their
>panel on UWB.  <http://http://www.vlab.org/204.cfm?eventID=29>
>
>Personally, I'm bullish on the technology.  However, as we all know it
>takes a lot more than just a physical layer technology to make a complete
>system that works as expected.
>
>I am disappointed that the panel was more focused on the physical
>layer technology, rather than establishing comfort that the higher
>layer MAC and management of the system is getting the job done and
>on time for market and regulatory needs.  A bad MAC can make a good
>PHY look bad as well as vice versa.
>
>Generally, most of the answers to audience questions fell into one of
>several buckets:
>
>1. The physical layer technology is great
>2. It'll be handled by a higher layer
>3. The IEEE 802 standards group will solve the problem
>4. The FCC supports the current approach of UWB
>
>I won't go into the details on all the Q&A but the answers to the
>following questions fell into one of the above answer buckets:
>
>+ Physical layer security?
>+ How are all the different implementations going to inter-operate?
>+ 150 clients in the same room, who gets to own the data projector?
>+ How to stay friendly to other RF services?
>+ What's happening with multi-band?
>+ Multi-hop?
>+ Can't you do this with QAM?
>
>and others which I can't seem to recall at this time. Maybe someone else
>can give a more detailed Q&A summary as well as the panelists presentations.
>Also, when the audience was polled about this being real in [2-3] years
>or [4-5] years, most of the hands went up on the longer time period.
>
>Where I am disappointed is that to me, the higher layer infrastructure
>doesn't exist yet. I have some specific questions/observations:
>
>1. Given the peer-to-peer 10 meter radius of UWB, how is quality of service
>really going to be guaranteed?  We all know that QoS in a loose
>peer-to-peer is nearly impossible to manage for 100% guaranteed service
>required for the timing constraints of SD and HDTV video.
>
>2. Given that this is being aimed at the in-home "cable replacement"
>space, how are adjoining MDU's/apartments going to negotiate resources
>with adjoining RF MAC domains?  Contention between close proximity
>living spaces will be inevitable, especially in AsiaPac and Europe.
>
>3. A 30 feet radius won't cover larger homes. How is UWB going to work
>in all rooms of a house and all floors?
>
>4. How exactly is the standards work going to future proof the system
>such that UWB can successfully overcome future regulation changes and
>the reality of "opinions" of other services in the spectrum?
>
>5. If the MAC and MAC management needs to accommodate the above
>functionality, how is the system going to be put together to be
>really easy to use?
>
>6. It seems likely that the current single band UWB will get to market.
>Will this cause RF interfere with what may happen in the future if the
>system has to go into some form of multi-band?
>
>If it were an ideal RF world, the current approach of single-band UWB
>may be great and I'd love to see it work.  The reality however, is
>that there are some significant issues that need to be solved *above*
>the physical layer that will likely require change to the single-band
>approach.  The next question is will the multi-band approach also meet
>all the requirements to make this technology successful?  We'll have
>to wait an see what the IEEE working group does with some "30+ proposals".
>
>My "where's the beef?" award goes to:
>
>The inference was directly made that switching from 400Mbps Firewire
>to UWB will make iPOD downloads go faster.  This reminds me of one of
>the current IBM TV commercials where the executives are being
>presented with "server uptime pixie dust".  "Just sprinkle and it will
>bring a server back up, sprinkle more and the server will repair itself"
>Just how is UWB in a shared RF space going to make the hard drive in
>the iPOD spin faster?
>
>In summary, let's get beyond the reply pitch and just assume that
>the UWB physical layer technology works as touted.  What about the
>rest of the system?
>
>Mark out.
>
>--
>*******************************************************************************
>Mark Laubach, CEO                         408-973-7333 voice direct
>Broadband Physics, Inc.                   408-973-7340 fax
>20300 Stevens Creek Blvd, STE250          650-996-2219 cell
>Cupertino, CA 95014                       mailto:mark@broadbandphysics.com
>http://www.broadbandphysics.com
>*******************************************************************************
>Located in the Panasonic Digital Concepts Center incubator facilities.
>*******************************************************************************

Archives at: <http://Wireless.Com/Dewayne-Net>
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