Definition

Mobile-phone-maker Nokia announced a new short-range wireless technology, Wibree

, in October 2006. With several other formats for short-range wireless already o
n the market or in development, tech pundits questioned what niche Wibree would
fill, or even if there was room for it at all. While the long-term success of Wi
bree remains to be seen, it does have several advantages over the competition, a
nd it has been positioned as a compliment to Bluetooth technology rather than as
a competitor.
Both Wibree and Bluetooth allow devices to communicate via short-range radio sig
nals. Bluetooth can be used to perform a variety of tasks, including sharing fil
es between a PC and a PDA , downloading an address book into a cell phone from a
PC, and transmitting a signal from a remote control to a television . The Bluet
ooth radio operates at 2.4 GHz, "hopping" rapidly around different bands close t
o that frequency to provide security and resistance to interference from other s
ignals (see How Bluetooth Works to learn more). Wibree, it turns out, will use t
he same radio frequency as Bluetooth, a major advantage over competitors. Using
the same basic mechanism for wireless communication will make it much easier for
devices to build in both Wibree and Bluetooth compatibility.
Where Wibree came from
Wibree didn't just appear from out of the blue this October. Although the curren
t specification is still confidential a little digging produces a lot of its his
tory and provides a good guide to its content. There is an irony in the fact tha
t the origins of Wibree were the alternative proposal for the radio and Media Ac
cess Controller (MAC) for the 802.15.4 standard, which is now the basis of ZigBe
e and other short range radio networks. Back in 2001 two industry groups put for
ward proposals for the form of this radio. Nokia headed one of the groups and pr
oposed a development that was handset centric. A major tenet of their design was
that "it can be deployed with minor effort into devices already having Bluetoot
h,
e.g. Cell phones" with the added requirement that a "common RF section with Blue
tooth must be possible". Their vision was also broader that that of the competin
g camp in that it envisaged a world of a trillion wireless, web connected device
s. A key slide shows millions of connected laptops, billions of mobile phones an
d trillions of what could be interpreted as Wibree enabled devices.
What Wibree does
Wibree 's main application is to provide an ultra low power radio within the 2.4
GHz band. Low power is always determined in large part by the application - the
longer a device is active, and the more data it transmits, the shorter its batte
ry life will be. Wibree is aiming to produce a radio that can transmit a small p
acket of data approximately every second for a year using a small button cell, s
uch as a CR2430, with a capacity of around 280mAH. If the duty cycle is reduced
to one transmission every 15 to 30 seconds, then the battery life effectively be
comes the leakage life of the battery. This low power drain is achieved by desig
ning a radio and protocol that lets the radio stay asleep for most of its life.
It can wake up quickly, when it will broadcast its requirement to transfer data
on a number of advertising channels across the spectrum. The receiving device, w
hich is likely to contain a larger battery as it will be on for more of the time
, will acknowledge the message and tell the first device which channel to send i
ts data on. It will then acknowledge receipt of this data, at which point both c
an go back to sleep. The whole process will take less than three or four millise
conds.