What is wireless USB

This page covers wireless USB basics and benefits.It compares wireless USB vs wired USB and mentions difference between wireless USB and wired USB.

The large number of USB interfaces are in use throughout the world. This is because users are adopted to use of digital devices such as laptops, PCS, portable hard drives, flash drives, cameras, DVD players, MP3 players and other mobile devices.

Unlike wired USB counterpart, wireless USB does not require any cables and works on radio frequency waves. It follows the standards set by USB-IF (USB Implementers' Forum, Inc.). It works on UWB standard. It provides speed of 110 Mbps to 480 Mbps with distances of 3 meters to 10 meters respectively.

USB-IF has more than 100 companies contributing for the success of USB based products. The companies include Samsung, NEC, LSI, HP, Microsoft etc.

wireless USB vs wired USB-difference between wireless USB and wired USB

Following are the benefits of wireless USB over wired one.
• Wireless USB delivers speed equivalent to wired USB connection.
• It delivers maximum power efficient system.
• Using built in protocols and authentication procedure, it provides secure data communication.
• It is backward compatible with applications developed for wired USB.
• It delivers plug and play capabilities similar to wired USB.

Wired USB can be converted to wireless USB with the use of wireless adapters. Various Wireless adapters are available such as wifi adapters, bluetooth adapters, IrDA adapters, zigbee USB adapters and so on. Each of these adapters support different wireless standards. This adapters can be easily plug-in into USB port of the devices.

Following table summarizes technical difference between wireless USB and wired USB.

Specifications wireless USB wired USB
Speed 110 Mbps to
480 Mbps as mentioned
Different USB versions
support various speeds.

•USB 2.0 supports 480Mbps,
•USB 3.0 supports 625Mbps,
•USB 4.0 supports
10Gbps,
Distance 3 to 10 meters
(as it is wireless) and will
have path loss over the air
•USB 2.0 supports
cable length of 5 meters
•USB 3.0 supports
cable length of 3 meters
Operationg RF
Frequency
works on 3.1GHz to
10.6GHz
Do not require RF frequency
to work as it is hard wired
Modulation
technique
MB-OFDM
(Multiband OFDM)
Not available

Wireless USB related links

WiFi USB Adapter
Difference between USB V2, V3, V4
Zigbee USB Dongle
Qi Wireless Charging
wireless charging technologies-EPC,PMA,A4WP,WPC
wireless charging solution manufacturers

What is?

what is RF?  what is wireless ?  what is zigbee?  what is Bluetooth?  what is lightwave RF?  what is z-wave? 

What is Difference between

difference between FDM and OFDM
Difference between SC-FDMA and OFDM
Difference between SISO and MIMO
Difference between TDD and FDD
Difference between 802.11 standards viz.11-a,11-b,11-g and 11-n
OFDM vs OFDMA
CDMA vs GSM
Bluetooth vs zigbee
Fixed wimax vs mobile
wibro vs mobile wimax
Microcontroller vs microprocessor

RF and Wireless Terminologies