(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Wireless 1394 Working Groups Established in Tokyo
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January 25, 1999 (TOKYO) -- A special sectional meeting for the Wireless
Home-Link Ad-hoc Committee of the Multimedia
Mobile Access Communication Systems Promotion Council (MMAC-PC)
announced the establishment of two working groups for studying Wireless
1394.
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The objective is to enhance the popularity of Wireless 1394 as an in-house
wireless interface standard.
Wireless 1394 is a system designed for applying packets conforming to
IEEE 1394 to wireless communications. According to manufacturers in
the working groups for Wireless 1394, the system will be used to link
a digital camcorder and a TV set or to link a digital set-top box and
a TV for data exchange.
The two groups are the Network Configuration Working Group and the Wireless
1394 Experiment Working Group.
The Telecommunications Advancement Organization (TAO), will house research
staff members focusing on residential issues of those working groups
at its research facilities. The TAO is an affiliate of the Ministry
of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).
Another working group called the Wireless 1394 Working Group was founded
in June 1998.
The three working groups will study various issues concerning wireless
data exchange using data conforming to IEEE 1394. They have invited
engineers to participate in the research project from Canon Inc., Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Sony Corp. and other companies.
There are two objectives underlying the foundation of the new groups.
The first aim is to promote the Wireless 1394 systems for taking part
in the frequency allocation work for the 5GHz bands. This is a subject
of inquiry of the MPT's Telecommunication Council.
For the allocation of 5GHz bands, the following three groups are racing
to obtain the bandwidth between 5.15GHz and 5.25GHz: (1) ATM-LAN of
public telecommunication systems, (2) Wireless LAN for office use, and
(3) Wireless 1394 systems for home use.
An official report of the inquiry issued by the council will likely conclude
the issue by specifying division of the bandwidth among those three
groups. Also, it will aim to make Wireless 1394 a Japanese original
specification (as an international standard) by quickly developing systems
conforming to Wireless 1394.
When making IEEE 1394 applicable to wireless systems, it is necessary
to modify a part of the protocol for IEEE 1394.
There are no official working groups for Wireless 1394 in the IEEE 1394
TA (Trade Association). Japan responded quickly when the Wireless 1394
Working Group was founded in June 1998.
ETSI EP BRAN in Europe started to study Wireless 1394 in November 1998,
and it recently completed a framework for allocating frequencies. Thus
it is rapidly catching up, industry analysts said.
If a European standard is implemented, business would become more complex.
The adopted bands (a 200MHz bandwidth between 5.725GHz and 5.925GHz)
are different from those used in Japan, and this would force makers
to develop products tailored to each specific market.
Related story: Multimedia
Council to Disclose Wireless Access Test
(Nikkei
Electronics)
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