FiRa Consortium Publishes PHY Technical Requirements Specification to Jumpstart the Development of the Ultra-Wideband Interoperable Ecosystem

PHY Requirements Specification Identifies Hardware and RF Communication Configurations Based on IEEE 802.15.4z Standards to Ensure Interoperability Between FiRa Consortium Certified Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Enabled Devices

Beaverton, OR – April 7, 2020 – As a first step in ensuring an interoperable UWB ecosystem across chipsets, devices and services infrastructures, the FiRa™ Consortium today announced the availability of the FiRa Consortium PHY Technical Requirements Specification, Version 1.0 to prescribe hardware and RF communications. The early availability of the PHY Technical Requirements Specification will help providers to execute quickly on the development of tools, chipsets, and other necessary components and services.

Additionally, the FiRa Consortium Technical Working Group has completed the MAC Technical Requirements Specification which is now in the review process. The Working Group is monitoring industry activity to ensure that the MAC specification is aligned with industry best practices and will support the vision of an open and interoperable ecosystem. This Working Group continues to develop security and performance parameters to promote a superior user experience for end-users of UWB-enabled products.

The basis for the new FiRa Consortium PHY Technical Requirements Specification is the High Rate Pulse (HRP) portion of the IEEE 802.15.4-2015™ technical specification and 802.15.4z™/D06 draft amendment for fine-ranging UWB technology. The work done by the IEEE 802.15.4z Enhanced Impulse Radio (EiR) Task Group included defining a series of PHY enhancements to improve the capabilities of UWB devices with corresponding MAC changes. These enhancements included improvements to existing modulations to increase the integrity and accuracy of ranging measurements and additional information element definitions to facilitate ranging information exchange.

The FiRa Consortium PHY Technical Requirements Specification will be used as the foundation for other specifications and certifications being driven by the FiRa Consortium. This Specification will provide FiRa Consortium members with an overview of the UWB ranging technology that has been developed and will provide guidance to developers who are actively working to develop new products based on UWB technology.

As next steps, the FiRa Consortium is actively completing the IPR review of the MAC Technical Requirements Specification and is developing the Common Service and Management Layer Specification, the Access Service Requirements Specification, and the Access Service Technical Specifications, followed by the Location-Based Services and Device-to-Device Specifications. Concurrently, the Consortium is developing the PHY/MAC Test Specification, the UWB Common Layer Test Specification, and the Access Service Test Specification. In addition, the FiRa Consortium will be developing other service use cases beyond Access Services. These specifications collectively will allow FiRa Consortium member companies to apply for FiRa Certified™ status for their products.

The PHY Technical Requirements Specification is available to FiRa Consortium members. To learn more about membership in the FiRa Consortium, visit https://www.firaconsortium.org/membership.

About FiRa Consortium

Headquartered in Beaverton, OR, the FiRa Consortium is a member-driven organization dedicated to the development and widespread adoption of seamless user experiences using the secured fine ranging and positioning capabilities of Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technologies. To learn more about the FiRa Consortium, visit www.firaconsortium.org.

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