Taking the Wires out of USB—Wireless USB Solutions

Since its introduction in the late 1990s, USB has become an enormous success, creating an industry that has delivered billions of devices into the marketplace. With the vast majority of computing peripherals supporting the USB protocol, and the benefits of high bandwidth connectivity provided by the USB 2.0 standard, the development focus for next generation USB technologies has firmly entrenched itself in the wireless domain. With the widespread benefit and appeal of wireless technologies such as 802.11 and Bluetooth, the benefits of a wireless USB solution are vast. However, when looking at available and possible solutions, one should remember that the path to success is not always a simple one. Many of the benefits of a wired USB connection become serious hurdles to overcome in the quest to take the wires off the desktop.

This white paper addresses some of the misconceptions of wireless USB technologies and provides an overview of the current landscape of available and future solutions.