Wireless USB

Wireless USB is a short-range, high-bandwidth wireless radio communication protocol created by the Wireless USB Promoter Group. Wireless USB is sometimes abbreviated as "WUSB", although the USB Implementers Forum discourages this practice and instead prefers to call the technology "Certified Wireless USB" to distinguish it from the competing UWB standard. Wireless USB is based on the (now defunct) WiMedia Alliance's Ultra-WideBand (UWB) common radio platform, which is capable of sending 480 Mbit/s at distances up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) and 110 Mbit/s at up to 10 metres (33 ft). It was designed to operate in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency range, although local regulatory policies may restrict the legal operating range for any given country.

Uses
Wireless USB is used in game controllers, printers, scanners, digital cameras, portable media players, hard disk drives and flash drives. Kensington released a Wireless USB universal docking station in August, 2008. It is also suitable for transferring parallel video streams, while utilizing the Wireless USB over Ultra-wideband bandwidth. [edit]Wireless

USB vs. 60 GHz

A few issues differentiate Wireless USB from the use of the 60 GHz band as promoted by the Wireless Gigabit Alliance: Line of Sight: at 60 GHz, radio communication is blocked by any intervening object, which implies the need for open line of sight. Wireless USB is based on the Ultra-WideBand(UWB) platform, which operates in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency range, and thus can pass through intervening bodies. Mobility: the 60 GHz technology is appealing to the wireless video market because it is supposed to [1] deliver multi-gigabit-speed wireless communications. In order to support such heavy demands, the underlying MAC layer should be able to process this huge amount of data. For these requirements, the 60 GHz-based solutions will need higher power consumption, and bigger chips, which are less suitable for mobile units or devices.

[edit]Development The Wireless USB Promoter Group was formed in February 2004 to define the Wireless USB protocol. The group consists of Agere Systems (now merged with LSI Corporation),HewlettPackard, Intel, Microsoft, NEC Corporation, Philips and Samsung. In May 2005, the Wireless USB Promoter Group announced the completion of the Wireless USB specification. In June 2006, five companies showed the first multi-vendor interoperability demonstration of Wireless USB. A laptop with an Intel host adapter using an Alereon PHY was used to transfer high definition video from a Philips wireless semiconductor solution with a Realtek PHY, all using Microsoft Windows XP drivers developed for Wireless USB.

In October 2006 the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the first complete Host Wire Adapter (HWA) and Device Wire Adapter (DWA) wireless USB solution from WiQuest Communications for both outdoor and indoor use. The first retail product was shipped by IOGEAR using Alereon, Intel and NEC silicon in mid-2007. Around the same time, Belkin, Dell, Lenovo and D-Link began shipping products that incorporated WiQuest technology. These products included embedded cards in the notebook PCs or Hub/Adapter solutions for those PCs that do not currently include Wireless USB. In 2008, a new Wireless USB Docking Station from Kensington was made available through Dell. This product was unique as it was the first product on the market to support video and graphics over a USB connection, by using DisplayLink USB graphics technology. Kensington's Docking Station enables wireless connectivity between a notebook PC and an external monitor, speakers, and existing wired USB peripherals. Imation announced Q408 availability of a new external Wireless HDD. Both of these products are based on WiQuest technology. On March 16, 2009, the WiMedia Alliance announced it is entering into technology transfer agreements for the WiMedia Ultra-wideband (UWB) specifications. WiMedia will transfer all current and future specifications, including work on future high speed and power optimized implementations, to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), Wireless USB Promoter Group and the USB Implementers Forum. After the successful completion of the technology transfer, marketing and related administrative [2][3][4] items, the WiMedia Alliance will cease operations. In October 2009, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group has dropped development of UWB as part of the alternative MAC/PHY, Bluetooth 3.0/High Speed solution. A small, but significant, number of former WiMedia members had not and would not sign up to the necessary agreements for the intellectual property transfer. The Bluetooth group is now turning its [5][6][7] attention from UWB to 60 GHz. On September 29, 2010, version 1.1 of the Wireless USB Specification was announced. It delivers several backwards-compatible improvements: UWB upper band support for frequencies 6 GHz and above, improved power management and consumption, and support for NFC and proximity based association. [edit]Compatibility
[8]

options for older hardware

The WUSB architecture allows up to 127 devices to connect directly to a host. Because there are no wires or ports, there is no longer a need for hubs. However, to facilitate migration from wired to wireless, WUSB introduced a new Device Wire Adapter (DWA) class. Sometimes referred to as a "WUSB hub", a DWA allows existing USB 2.0 devices to be used wirelessly with a WUSB host. WUSB host capability can be added to existing PCs through the use of a Host Wire Adapter (HWA). The HWA is a USB 2.0 device that attaches externally to a desktop or laptop's USB port or internally to a laptop's MiniCard interface. WUSB also supports dual-role devices (DRDs), which in addition to being a WUSB device, can function as a host with limited capabilities. For example, a digital camera could act as a device when connected to a computer and as a host when transferring pictures directly to a printer.

[edit]Relation

to ultra-wideband (UWB)

A common source of confusion is about the relationship between WUSB, WiMedia, and UWB. The UWB and WUSB technologies are not the same, and the terms WUSB and UWB are not synonymous. UWB is a general term for a new type of radio communication using pulses of energy which spread emitted Radio Frequency energy over 500 MHz+ of spectrum or exceeding 20% fractional bandwidth within the frequency range of 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz as defined by the FCC ruling issued for UWB in Feb. 2002. UWB is not specific to WiMedia or any other company or group and there are in fact a number of groups and companies developing UWB technology totally unrelated to WiMedia. Some [which?] companies use UWB for ground penetrating radar, through wall radar and yet another company Pulse-LINK uses it as part of a whole home entertainment network using UWB for transmission over both wired and wireless media. WUSB is a protocol promulgated by the USB-IF that uses WiMedia's UWB radio platform. Other protocols that have announced their intention to use WiMedia's UWB radio platform include Bluetooth and the WiMedia Logical Link Control Protocol. [edit]Comparison

of digital RF systems
Wireless USB vs. 802.11a/b/g & Bluetooth
[9]

Specification

Wireless Bluetooth USB 4.0(proposed Specificatio ) n Rev. 1.1

Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n)

WiBluetoot Fi (IEEE h 2.1 802.11ac + EDR )

Frequency band

3.1 GHz 10.6 GHz

2.4 GHz

2.4 GHz and/or 5 GHz

5 GHz

2.4 GHz

Bandwidth

53-480 Mbit/s

1 Mbit/s

Max. 450 Mbit/s per band

Max. 6.93 Gbit/s per band

Max. 3 Mbit/s

Distance

310 m

unknown distance

100 m

1100 m dependin unknown g on output

Modulation

MB-OFDM

MB-OFDM

DSSS, DBPSK, DQPSK, CCK,OFD

OFDM

GFSK

Standardizatio n

September 2010

June 2010

September 2009

preJuly 2007 standard

[edit]Competitors Other forms of USB over wireless exist, such as those based on the competing direct [10] sequence UWB technology by Cable-Free USB. The same is also true for other radio frequency based wire replacement systems which can carry USB. The result is that the name Certified Wireless USB was adopted to allow consumers to identify which products would be adherent to the standard and would support the correct protocol and data rates.

References
1. ^ "Ecosystem". Wireless Gigabit Alliance. Retrieved 2011-12-02. 2. ^ [1]
[dead link]

3. ^ "WiMedia Tech Transfer". USB.org. 2009-03-16. Retrieved 2011-12-02. 4. ^ "Incisor Wireless News: What to make of the Bluetooth SIG / WiMedia merger?". Incisor.tv. 2009-03-16. Retrieved 2011-12-02. 5. ^ Bluetooth group drops ultrawideband, eyes 60 GHz 6. ^ Report: Ultrawideband dies by 2013 7. ^ "Incisor Magazine November 2009". Incisor.tv. Retrieved 2011-12-02. 8. ^ http://www.usb.org/press/USB-IF_Press_Releases/WirelessUSB_1.1_TechBulletin_Spec_FINAL.pdf 9. ^ Nikkei Electronics 2007/10/8 10. ^ "Pulse-LINK". Pulse-LINK. Retrieved 2011-12-02.

External links
Wireless USB Promoter Group WiMedia Alliance Challenges of Migrating to Wireless USB 5 Steps to Wireless USB Quality Assurance Certified Wireless USB products at USB IF official site Latest WiMedia Regulatory Status Chart

REFERENCES Alereon: http://www.alereon.com/ Artaflex: http://www.artaflexmodules.com/products.html?cat_id=1 Aurel: http://www.aurelwireless.com/ Bluetooth: http://www.bluetooth.com/ Cypress: http://www.cypress.com/products/ Fontana 2004: http://www.multispectral.com/pdf/MTT52No9.pdf Griffith 2006: http://www.ultrawidebandplanet.com/resources/article.php/3578521 Hazen 2006: http://rfdesign.com/next_generation_wireless/ieee-task-group/ Intel: http://www.intel.com/technology/comms/uwb/ Lunttila et. al 2004: http://www.prosessori.fi/es04/ARKISTO/PDF/UWB_TEKNIIKKA.PDF Unigen: http://www.unigen.com/ USB.org: http://www.usb.org/ Wimedia: http://www.wimedia.org

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Advantages:

Flexible if there is ad-hoc situation when additional workstation was required. Implementation cost is cheaper than wired network. Ideal for the non-reachable places such as across river or mountain or rural area. Ideal for temporary network setups. Disadvantages: Lower speed compared to wired network. (of course!) Less secure because hacker's laptop can act as Access Point. If you connected to their laptop, they'll read all your information (username, password.. bla..bla..bla..). More complex to configure than wired network. Affected by surrounding. E.g: walls (blocking), microwave oven (interference), far distance (attenuation)

CERTIFIED WIRELESS USB Certified Wireless USB is the natural evolution and extension of the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol, first introduced in 1994. Since its introduction, USB has become the de

facto standard in the personal computing industry, with billions of devices in use around the world. Wireless USB promises to expand on the legendary ease of use of traditional wired USB by extending the "plug-and-play" paradigm to an environment where the cables between the PC and devices no longer exist. At the heart of Certified Wireless USB is a radio technology new to the consumer space: Ultra-wideband. This high-bandwidth, low-power method of wireless data transmission enables the secure, high-speed connection required for the USB-like user experience. This radio platform, developed by the WiMedia Alliance, was chosen in 2004 to serve as the foundation for wireless USB. The official specification, released as version 1.0 in May 2005 by the Wireless USB Promoter Group, will be revised to version 1.1 sometime in 2008 and add updates for better power efficiency and support for frequencies above 6 GHz. Certified Wireless USB was designed from the ground up to address the specific challenges of wireless communications and personal networking. It is based on an Ultra-wideband (UWB) radio system called orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) which was created by the WiMedia Alliance expressly for wireless USB. The Wireless Promoter Group, consisting of seven companies - Intel Corporation, HP, LSI Logic, Microsoft Corporation, NEC Corporation, NXP Semiconductors, and Samsung Electronics - defined the core specification with the support of more than 100 contributing members. This specification, called Wireless USB Specification version 1.0 (soon to be 1.1), is managed by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). Certified Wireless USB includes features necessary for the long-term viability of the solution, such as radio power management, additional security features, and, the potential for the datarate to improve as Certified Wireless USB support is adopted natively by new hardware and operating system updates.

1. How fast is Certified Wireless USB? What is its operating range?

Real-world performance is expected to vary greatly depending on the distance required. Wireless USB is designed for optimal performance when the devices are less than 10 meters (33 ft) away from the computer. Although speeds of up to 480 Mbps are advertised, this is a theoretical maximum. It is reasonable to expect performance upwards of 50-100 Mbps at short range, with performance decreasing as distance increases. As more computing systems integrate native support for Wireless USB rather than using dongles or adapters, it is reasonable to expect performance approaching 200 Mbps and beyond.

2. Why might I want Certified Wireless USB?

Certified Wireless USB builds upon the consumer awareness of USB and its legendary ease of use. Similar to the impact on networking and the freedom that Wi-Fi brought to mobile internet access in the last decade, wireless USB promises a user experience with fewer cables. This means consumer electronics without the typical rat's nest of wires, easier installation and set-up for devices in the digital home, and revolutionary new products such as wireless monitors and displays. Apart from removing the wires from computer peripherals to make them more convenient to use, wireless USB opens up some rather interesting product opportunities. Imagine eliminating the thick cables between your display and your computer. Or streaming video to multiple displays within a room - including your 60-inch flat panel - without a video splitter and without video cables. Digital cameras would be able to store the captured images not just on large flash cards in the camera, but on much larger storage devices stored in a briefcase or in a jacket pocket. That same digital camera could then stream pictures and video to any wireless USB enabled display in the room. Because the maximum throughput of wireless USB promises to be significantly higher than the fastest Wi-Fi connections, richer and more interactive user experiences will be possible.

3. How does Wireless USB work?

Certified Wireless USB builds on top of the fundamental operational model of traditional wired USB. That is, wireless USB connects devices such as printers, keyboards, and storage media to the computer in a "plug-and-play" fashion, but without cables. In order to accomplish this, both new hardware adapters and new software drivers are required. At the heart of a wireless USB system is the radio and antenna system. Certified Wireless USB employs a wireless technology called Ultra-wideband (UWB), which operates in the frequency range of 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. (For reference, 802.11 Wi-Fi networks are commonly operating at 2.4 GHz, the same frequency as some cordless phones, microwave ovens, and Bluetooth devices). One of the key advantages to a UWB system is the low power consumption (great for portable devices) and wide frequency spectrum of operation. UWB is actually not a new technology - it was invented in the 1960s primarily for military use in secure communications and ground-penetrating radars. Mainly a technology developed under classified US government programs, UWB now enjoys much more research and development attention without classification restrictions. The ultra-wideband radio system employed by Certified Wireless USB is different from other wireless technologies on the market because it spreads data transmission over a very wide frequency spectrum in the form of brief, low-power pulses. In short, this allows the wireless system to avoid transmission at troublesome frequencies, such as the 5 GHz range (802.11a, some cordless phones). The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme, developed by the WiMedia Alliance and selected as the exclusive radio platform for Certified Wireless USB, allows the bit rate and signal strength of each carrier to adapt so that good channels get used more than those that hamper transmission. Certified Wireless USB allows up to 127 devices to connect directly to the host computer. Unlike wired USB, this is possible without hubs, because there are no wires.

4. What hardware do I need to use WUSB? Will my existing USB peripherals still work?
Think of wireless USB as an additional way in which to connect devices to a computer. Thus, traditional USB ports are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. All of your current USB peripherals will still utilize the wired USB connection they always have. Wireless USB, however, opens up a variety of new types of devices. Wireless USB hubs, or bridging devices, will allow you to plug wired USB peripherals into the hub, but the hub itself will enjoy a wireless connection to the computer. In this way, you can experience the convenience of wireless connectivity without replacing all your USB peripherals with wireless versions. To aid in the transition from a world with only wired USB to one where Certified Wireless USB will one day be supported natively on the motherboard of new computers, the concept of Device Wire Adapters (DWA) and Host Wire Adapters (HWA) was created. HWAs are essentially "dongles" that physically connect to the computer via USB 2.0 or a laptop's CardBus or ExpressCard interface, and provide Wireless USB host capability to any number of WUSB devices. DWAs, or "Wireless USB hubs", allow existing wired USB devices to be used wirelessly with a WUSB host. Over time, the industry will move towards more integrated solutions where any required hardware is built-in to the computer and adapters will not be necessary. Of course, you would need a computer so-equipped to enjoy wireless USB built-in.

5. Where are all the Wireless USB products?

Wireless USB products have been late in arriving, mainly due to manufacturers needing to overcome technical hurdles inherent in any new technology launch. But the wait is over, and you can expect to

see numerous product announcements leading up to the Christmas season. While this is exciting for the industry as a whole, it will be a while before native hardware and driver support for Certified Wireless USB is built into computers and major operating systems. Naturally, speed, compatibility and robustness will improve in successive product generations as the technology becomes more widely adopted and manufacturers tweak, revise, and redesign their products for optimal performance.

Everything USB will be bringing you a new Wireless USB section soon. For now, here
are the links to some Certified Wireless USB products on this site:

Cables Unlimited Wireless USB Adapter Set - A low-cost adapter that converts a
single USB node to wireless

Imation Wireless Projection Link - WUSB video solution with zero-install option,
Mac compatible

Imation Pro WX Wireless Hard Drive - A 1.5TB hard drive housed in a Staccatopowered WUSB enclosure

IOGear Wireless USB AV Kit - Adapter set capable of streaming both 720p to VGA
and stereo sound to RCA

Kensington WUSB Dock for Notebooks - Wireless video, wireless USB audio - 15
feet of freedom

Toshiba DynaDock Wireless USB Dock - Notebook dock with DisplayLink, 7.1
sound & isochronous USB support

6. Will Wireless USB eventually replace wired USB?

Despite rapid advancements in wireless technology through the course of the computing industry, good old wired connections still enjoy speed and some security advantages over their wireless counterparts. It is just that much more straightforward and fast to get electrons traveling nicely down a few pieces of copper than it is to transmit signals through thin air and in the presence of interference. There is simply no chance of an unwanted party connecting to your local USB storage device, for instance, when the cable is directly connected to your PC (provided your networking environment is properly secure). Wired USB 2.0 and the new USB 3.0 (a.k.a. SuperSpeed USB) standard are not going away, but will remain the device interconnect standard of choice for the foreseeable future. The issues of speed and distance pose significant challenges to any connection standard, but are always an order of magnitude more difficult to solve in a wireless environment.

Lastly, the issue of cost will likely always favor the wired USB solution over wireless USB. Interface chips simply are less complex in a wired world, and that allows the cost of products that contain them to be lower as well. For users who don't need the convenience and freedom that wireless USB offers, wired USB is here to stay.

7. What operating systems support Certified Wireless USB?

In a nutshell, all major computer operating systems are planned to support wireless USB. However, at the moment, wireless USB functionality is provided only by proprietary software drivers and is largely device-specific. As the standard matures and subsequent releases of your favorite operating system become available, we expect native wireless USB support to be built in. Products containing DWA and DHA will utilize custom wireless USB drivers for the foreseeable future. Microsoft has stated officially (warning: MS DOC) that Windows drivers for the Wireless Host Controllers Interface (WHCI), Host Wire Adapters (HWA) and Device Wireless Adapters (DWA) are currently in Alpha. Shipping drivers are said to be forthcoming, depending on hardware availability and other such factors, although a specific date for wide-scale availability has not been provided. Apple has not released any information regarding Mac OS X support for Certified Wireless USB. In classic Apple fashion, they may be just playing these cards close to their chest. When some official announcement is made, you can be sure to read it here on our site.

8. Is Certified Wireless USB secure?

By design, Certified Wireless USB is a very secure method of data transmission. As with any wireless technology, there is the possibility for data in the air to be available to other wireless receivers in range with malicious intent. Encryption is incorporated at

multiple layers of the protocol, which forces a secure relationship to be automatically negotiated between each wireless USB device and the host computer using unique keys. This type of arrangement provides an extremely high-level of security to the data link, without passwords for the user to enter or forget. Coming in the updated specification (version 1.1), first-time device association will be simplified through the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities, meaning that devices can be introduced to their computers by a touch-and-go action. The inherent low-power nature of the ultra-wideband radios used in Certified Wireless USB also plays a factor in the security. Since the maximum range is not more than 10 metres, the threat of data being stolen or read by others is limited to those who can be situated within close proximity to the wireless USB network. More information about wireless USB bonding and device association methods can be found here.

9. Will other wireless technologies interfere with my WUSB devices?

The wireless transmission techniques used in Certified Wireless USB promise to be some of the most robust schemes of their type in the consumer market. Interference robustness is far better than Wi-Fi. Ultra-wideband signals will not be affected by out-ofband interferers such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or cordless phones, even at close proximity. The reason for this is the use of a wide frequency spectrum with extremely low power at any one given frequency (but high power spectral density) versus "narrowband" systems which occupy only a small range of dedicated bands. UWB is very tolerant of interference from other UWB sources but equally important, will "peacefully" co-exist with other wireless networks such as Wi-Fi and not interfere with Wi-Fi operation. Put simply, the limited range of UWB will undoubtedly be more of a limitation for potential users than interference robustness.

10. What does the future hold for WUSB and what about those competing standards?
Over the past few years, several alternate "flavors" of wireless USB have been developed, none of which play any significant role in the market today. The first such flavor was released by Cypress Semiconductor in 2003 and is technically the only version that can be called WirelessUSB [tm] because it is trademarked. It is a very low-speed, limited "variant" of USB that was primarily targeted as a replacement for Bluetooth. Its key application lies in the wireless connections of human interface devices (HIDs) such as mice and keyboards. It uses a proprietary 2.4 GHz radio with a datarate of only 62.5 kbps. Cypress' WirelessUSB has very limited appeal in today's consumer electronics and computer industry and is rarely mentioned in mass publications or on the internet. The second flavor was pioneered by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly a division of Motorola, Inc.), trademarked "CableFree USB", and promoted by the UWB Forum and its partners. This variant used an ultra-wideband radio technology called direct sequence (DS-UWB) and its main advantage was that it was built on top of the USB 2.0 protocol in use today. This meant that users could make a seamless transition from wired USB 2.0 or 1.1 to a CableFree wireless USB system with absolutely no changes required to the computer, operating system, or software drivers. CableFree USB was a very compelling advancement in 2005 and 2006, and was actually first to market at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2006 with the multi-award-winning Belkin CableFree USB 4-port hub. Since that time, Freescale and its CableFree USB promoters have abandoned the market, leaving only one viable solution remaining: Certified Wireless USB.

True competition for Certified Wireless USB will come primarily from Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11n (the latest and fastest variant of Wi-Fi). Bluetooth became popular primarily for low-speed short-range personal area communications and due to its extremely low cost of implementation. It uses the massively crowded 2.4 GHz radio frequency and currently is limited to a maximum datarate of about 2.1 Mbps. Knowing that the maximum throughput would need to be able to scale higher to ensure the future viability of Bluetooth, supporters of Bluetooth selected the OFDM-UWB radio platform for future integration with Bluetooth technology. This means that future versions of Bluetooth will use very much the same wireless technology as Certified Wireless USB, with similar high data rate capabilities for multimedia applications such as video streaming. It will certainly be very interesting to see how this plays out, and whether Bluetooth and Certified Wireless USB will be able to co-exist. 802.11n (and its predecessors 802.11g/b/a), are without question the standard in wireless networking. Originally developed to address the problem of deploying Local Area Networks (LANs) without cabling, it has truly changed the face of mobile computing and is supported by every major operating system, most gaming consoles, and many mobile devices and mobile phones. In its latest iteration, 802.11n, data rates in excess of 100 Mbps are achievable at a range of up to 30m or greater. Starting a few years ago, due to the lack of any other high-speed wireless protocol, many manufacturers of digital cameras and printers proceeded to install support for 802.11 networking in order to achieve wireless data transfer. Certified Wireless USB would have been a more logical choice, but it was not ready and is still in its infancy.

Introduction of Wireless USB

The Universal Serial Bus (USB), with one billion units in the installed base, is the most successful interface in PC history. Projections are for 3.5 billion interfaces shipped by 2006. Benefiting from exceptionally strong industry support from all market segments, USB continues to evolve as new

technologies and products come to market. It is already the de facto interconnect for PCs, and has proliferated into consumer electronics (CE) and mobile devices as well. The Wireless USB is the first the high speed Personal Wireless Interconnect. Wireless USB will build on the success of wired USB, bringing USB technology into the wireless future. Usage will be targeted at PCs and PC peripherals, consumer electronics and mobile devices. To maintain the same usage and architecture as wired USB, the Wireless USB specification is being defined as a high-speed host-todevice connection. This will enable an easy migration path for today's wired USB solutions. Wireless USB paper takes a brief look at the widely used interconnect standard, USB and in particular, at the emerging technology of Wireless USB and its requirements and promises.

USB Ports
Just about any computer that you buy today comes with one or more Universal Serial Bus connectors on the back. These USB connectors let you attach everything from mice to printers to your computer quickly and easily. The operating system supports USB as well, so the installation of the device drivers is quick and easy, too. Compared to other ways of connecting devices to your computer (including parallel ports, serial ports and special cards that you install inside the computer's case), USB devices are incredibly simple! Anyone who has been around computers for more than two or three years knows the problem that the Universal Serial Bus is trying to solve -- in the past, connecting devices to computers has been a real headache!

" Printers connected to parallel printer ports, and most computers only came with one. Things like Zip drives, which need a high-speed connection into the computer, would use the parallel port as well, often with limited success and not much speed. " Modems used the serial port, but so did some printers and a variety of odd things like Palm Pilots and digital cameras. Most computers have at most two serial ports, and they are very slow in most cases.

" Devices that needed faster connections came with their own cards, which had to fit in a card slot inside the computer's case. Unfortunately, the number of card slots is limited and you needed a Ph.D. to install the software for some of the cards. The goal of USB is to end all of these headaches. The Universal Serial Bus gives you a single, standardized, easy-to-use way to connect up to 127 devices to a computer. Just about every peripheral made now comes in a USB version. In fact almost all the devices manufactured today are designed to be interfaced to the computer via the USB ports.

USB Connections
Connecting a USB device to a computer is simple -- you find the USB connector on the back of your machine and plug the USB connector into it. If it is a new device, the operating system auto-detects it and asks for the driver disk. If the device has already been installed, the computer activates it and starts talking to it. USB devices can be connected and disconnected at any time.

USB Features
The Universal Serial Bus has the following features: " The computer acts as the host. " Up to 127 devices can connect to the host, either directly or by way of USB hubs. " Individual USB cables can run as long as 5 meters; with hubs, devices can be up to 30 meters (six cables' worth) away from the host. " With USB 2.,the bus has a maximum data rate of 480 megabits per second. " A USB cable has two wires for power (+5 volts and ground) and a twisted pair of wires to carry the data. " On the power wires, the computer can supply up to 500 milliamps of power at 5 volts. " Low-power devices (such as mice) can draw their power directly from the bus. High-power devices (such as printers) have their own power supplies and draw minimal power from the bus. Hubs can have their own power supplies to provide power to devices connected to the hub. " USB devices are hot-swappable, meaning you can plug them into the bus and unplug them any time. " Many USB devices can be put to sleep by the host computer when the computer enters a power-saving modenbsp;