Ecma Develops 60 GHz Radio Standard.

Ecma Standard Specifies Low-Cost, Short-Range, Energy and Spectrum Efficient Radio for Applications that Require Multi-Gigabit Data Rates

GENEVA -- Ecma International is developing an International Standard for 60 GHz technology for very high data rate short range unlicensed communications aiming at bulk data transfer, high-definition multimedia streaming and wireless personal area networking applications. At its meeting from 30 January to 2 February in Atlanta, Ecma's TC32-TG20 task group reviewed proposal presentations for a complete (PHY+MAC) standard for low power 2 to 10 Gigabit/s data transport. The standard intends to ensure compatibility and interoperability for different usage/application scenarios by defining a common framing structure.

At the Atlanta meeting, ETRI, GEDC (Georgia Tech), Intel, KU (Korea University), Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic), NewLANS, Philips and Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. Ltd., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. reached a major milestone by analysing standard proposals that will give rise to a slew of next generation wireless applications.

"Wireless interconnects need to be rethought to provide easy-to-use connectivity at multi-gigabit data rates serving large file transfer and high definition multimedia streaming applications for consumer electronics, medical and computing devices," said Ruud van Bokhorst, Director of Standardization with Philips.

"Enabling wireless multi-gigabit data rates at the lowest power and lowest cost ever achieved is a tremendous advantage of the emerging CMOS based 60GHz technology," said Dr. Haksun Kim, VP of Wireless Solutions Lab in Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., LTD.

"A complete and scalable WPAN/WLAN standard solution is required to radically change today's user experience, by eliminating the hassle of multiple and different wired interconnect," said Dr. Wooyong Lee the technical leader at ETRI for 60 GHz technologies.

"Ecma International is pleased to help spur the innovation of the next generation low-cost, multi-giga-bit wireless technology that will spur the development of personal applications in pico-net environments. The fact that small and large industry members in addition to leading academia institutes from Asia, Europe and the US are actively developing this technology is a promising sign for global application," said Onno Elzinga, Ecma International's CTO.

About Ecma International

Since its inception in 1961, Ecma International (Ecma) develops standards for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Consumer Electronics (CE). Ecma is a non-profit association of technology developers, vendors and users. Industry and other experts work together in Ecma to complete standards. Ecma submits approved work for approval as ISO, ISO/IEC and ETSI standards and is the inventor and main practitioner of "fast tracking" its publications through the standardisation process in global standards bodies such as the ISO. Download publications free of charge from http://www.ecma-international.org/.