Wibree will become the low-powered Bluetooth

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 13 June 2007 09:43

Business IT - Technology

Wibree, the low-power short range wireless specification pioneered by Nokia, is to become the basis for a low-powered version of the Bluetooth short range wireless technology following the merger of the Wibree Forum with the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

In a joint announcement, Nokia and the Bluetooth SIG said: "Because Wibree addresses devices with very low battery capacity and can be easily integrated with Bluetooth technology, it will round out Bluetooth technology's wireless personal area networking (PAN) offering and strengthen the technology's ability to provide wireless connectivity for smaller devices."
 
Bluetooth SIG executive director Michael Foley said: "By including or referencing other wireless technologies like ultra wideband for high speed applications, near field communication (NFC) for association and now Wibree for ultra low power applications under the well-established Bluetooth profiles, we are opening up a host of new applications and functionality while keeping the user experience consistent. He added, "Our members have been asking for an ultra low power Bluetooth solution. With Nokia's innovative development and contribution to the Bluetooth specification with Wibree, we will be able to deliver this in approximately one year."

The move ends a curious phase in Bluetooth's history, in which the unanswered Question is why development the functionality provided by Wibree was not undertaken within Bluetooth. The need for a low power version of Bluetooth, suitable for small devices like watches powered by 'button' batteries, has been evident for some time.

Nokia was a cofounder of Bluetooth in the nineties and is an active member of the Bluetooth SIG. However, in October 2006 it revealed Wibree, and the Wibree Forum, saying that Wibree would deliver " Bluetooth like performance within 0-10 metre range and data rate of 1Mbps," and that it was "optimised for applications requiring extremely low power consumption, small size and low cost." Nokia claimed that power requirements will be around 10 percent of Bluetooth's.

Nokia had been working on Wibree since 2001, and named codevelopers of the Wibree specification as Broadcom Corporation, CSR, Epson and Nordic Semiconductor. Nordic Semiconductor said it would be ready to ship Wibree chips by the second half of 2007.