Standards Update

April 2, 2013

From competing wireless power standards to the latest in Wi-Fi and ZigBee, the industry is pushing specifications forward to meet future technology and product needs.

Nancy Friedrich

To ensure that its consumers enjoy a uniform wireless power experience in all of the venues that they visit throughout their day, PowerKiss is joining the Power Matters Alliance (PMA). PowerKiss currently provides over 1000 wireless charging spots at locations across Europe, which include London’s Paddington and Paris’ Gare de Lyon train stations and dozens of airports. The company plans to upgrade its existing charging spots and construct future installations to meet PMA compliance.
The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) has welcomed Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Gill Industries, and Integrated Device Technology (IDT) to its board of directors. These companies join A4WP Co-Founders Qualcomm, Inc. and Samsung Electronics to expand smartphone market-segment representation and impact on the A4WP board. Earlier this year, the group approved the Alliance for Wireless Power Version 1.0 interoperability specification and demonstrated prototype products. More recently, the A4WP Certification Working Committee approved an overall certification program framework based on ISO Guide 65, ISO 9001, and ISO 17025.
The Wi-Fi Alliance and Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) Alliance have finalized the agreement defining the consolidation of WiGig technology with certification development in the Wi-Fi Alliance. Essentially, the Wi-Fi Alliance will continue work begun in the WiGig Alliance, which focuses on features that extend WiGig capabilities beyond baseline connectivity. Such aspects address applications ranging from high-definition WiGig Display to peripheral connectivity and input/output (I/O) cable replacement. The consolidation of activities in the Wi-Fi Alliance will deliver closely harmonized connectivity and application-layer solutions using WiGig technology. Early 60-GHz implementations based on the WiGig specifications are now entering the market. ABI Research forecasts that annual shipments of devices with both Wi-Fi and WiGig technology will reach 1.8 billion by 2016.
The ZigBee Alliance announced the completion and public availability of its third specification, ZigBee IP. As an open standard for an IPv6-based full wireless mesh networking solution, ZigBee IP promises to provide seamless Internet connections to control low-power, low-cost devices. The specification enhances the IEEE 802.15.4 standard by adding network and security layers as well as an application framework.
The PCI-SIG and MIPI Alliance have begun procedural reviews of the Mobile PCI Express (M-PCIe) specification. The new specification enables the PCI Express (PCIe) architecture to operate over the MIPI M-PHY physical-layer technology. In doing so, it extends the benefits of the PCIe I/O standard to mobile devices including thin laptops, tablets, and smartphones. The M-PCIe specification is expected to be available to PCI-SIG members in the second quarter of this year via the PCI-SIG website.

About the Author

Nancy Friedrich | Editor-in-Chief

Nancy Friedrich began her career in technical publishing in 1998. After a stint with sister publication Electronic Design as Chief Copy Editor, Nancy worked as Managing Editor of Embedded Systems Development. She then became a Technology Editor at Wireless Systems Design, an offshoot of Microwaves & RF. Nancy has called the microwave space “home” since 2005.