Wireless Firewire specification approved

"The 1394 Trade Association, responsible for managing the IEEE 1394 specification more commonly known as 'Firewire', has approved a new MAC Convergence Architecture for a Protocol Adaption Layer (PAL). That allows IEEE 1394 devices, which is a wired data bus, to tunnel through a wireless connection at speeds up to 480 Mbps. The Association will also work with the PAL's developers, the WiMedia Alliance, to develop interoperability tests and certifications to allow wireless Firewire devices to talk to each other. The Association will also be working with the MultiBand OFDM Alliance Special Interest Group, another industry trade group, to coordinate the development of both the wireless Firewire and UltraWide Band (UWB) specifications.

When the dust settles, the intent is to have a common, very-fast standard for wireless peer-to-peer data transmission between two devices. However, such a system will still face stiff competition from other high-speed wireless systems, such as next generation Bluetooth, WiMax, and even 3G networks, depending on where the involved parties try to position it in the market."

infoSync World - Wireless Firewire specification approved