New wireless standard for small devices

Nokia is working on a new wireless standard that promises short range communications

Nokia is developing a new wireless standard to support short-range communications between small battery-powered devices. The technology will complement rather than compete with existing standards such as Bluetooth, according to the company, and can even piggy-back onto the Bluetooth radio circuitry to cut costs.

The new standard, called Wibree, will support a data rate of 1Mbit/s over distances up to 10m. Nokia has formed a Wibree forum and invited industry partners to help develop the technology, with a first version of the specification due in the second quarter of 2007.

Among the partners is Bluetooth chipmaker CSR, which said it saw the technology as a natural extension to those it already uses.

"There is some overlap with other standards, as it has the same range as Bluetooth, and is ultra-low power like ZigBee," said CSR vice-president of communications Alan Woolhouse. Like ZigBee, applications for Wibree will be in devices powered by small batteries that have to last a long time, such as wireless mice and keyboards.

"With Bluetooth, you might be streaming audio, which needs the radio much of the time consuming power. Wibree is for more sporadic transmission of small amounts of data," Woolhouse said.

With Nokia the driving force behind Wibree, the technology is likely to find its way into phones as a way of communicating with battery-powered peripherals. Examples listed on the Wibree web site include links to data wristwatches and digital pens.

The new standard would cost very little to add to Bluetooth chips and piggyback on the existing radio interface, according to CSR.

"It will need a very small amount of silicon real estate to build in. It's much less complex than Bluetooth, and hence less costly," said Woolhouse. He added it was too early to say when the first products might find their way to market.