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New IrDA Spec Shoots for 100Mbit/s Data Rate

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the lovers-of-backwards-compatible-hardware dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to an article at DeviceForge, the Infrared Data Association has adopted a new high speed IR communications protocol. This new protocol promises to deliver possible speed up to 100Mbit/s transfer rates. From the article: 'Of note, existing IrDA-enabled devices can be upgraded to the new protocol, thus offering the opportunity to accelerate the IrDA data transfer rates of devices in the field via a software update.'"

14 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Good, but... by Poromenos1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Although it's quite fast it's still line-of-sight, and very short range. So, what can I do with this, transfer 12.5 MB/sec off my mobile phone? To connect my PCs I have wifi or LAN, I wouldn't use IrDA anyway for that.

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    1. Re:Good, but... by MountainMan101 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You can't snoop on it (so easily). In secure establishments bluetooth is a liability.

    2. Re:Good, but... by KiloByte · · Score: 3, Funny

      At least for regular IrDA, you need not only line-of-sight but also a proper phase-of-the-moon. Getting that fixed would be nifty.

      --
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    3. Re:Good, but... by Ewan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In secure establishments any portable device capable of being used for removing or adding new data bypassing the security is a liability, whether it's done using irda, bluetooth, cable, or pen and paper - i don't think the poor encryption of bluetooth is the issue.

    4. Re:Good, but... by dr.badass · · Score: 3, Funny

      At least for regular IrDA, you need not only line-of-sight but also a proper phase-of-the-moon. Getting that fixed would be nifty.

      All you really need is favor-of-the-gods. Just sacrifice a goat or two and it works every time.

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    5. Re:Good, but... by Solder+Fumes · · Score: 3, Funny

      If only there were some way to channel light through some kind of flexible tube....

  2. Er, no. by richie2000 · · Score: 5, Informative
    TFA states that the faster protocol that older devices can be firmware-upgraded to (IrSimple) is just a regular 4mbps Fast IrDA version with less overhead. The VFIR (16 mbps) and UFIR (100 mbps) protocols in development will surpass current hardware capabilities and current devices cannot be upgraded to them.

    Now, although the editor may feel that the submitter knows more about a subject field than he (or she), just a cursory glance through the linked main article to see how well it jives with the write-up should be in order. I'm just saying'.

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  3. nice by bart416 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nice speed, this is handy for people that need to connect their mobile phone with their computer or something like that. Since bluetooth isn't that fast...

    1. Re:nice by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Informative
      Bluetooth is 721Kb/s, which is much faster than the connection between my telephone and the Internet. Bluetooth 2 (which exists on equipment that I don't own) runs at 3Mb/s - faster than my home Internet connection.

      The real advantage of bluetooth, however, is that it is not line of sight. When I am in a meeting or on the train I can just leave my 'phone in my pocket and still use it to connect to the Internet. With IrDA you still need to carefully align the devices.

      IrDA has the advantage that it does not require any kind of pairing, so it is good for one-off transfers. The only thing I really use it for is dropping my vCard into someone else's telephone / PDO from my 'phone. With more bandwidth, it might be good for transferring photos off a camera to a printer, but I suspect that wireless USB will be around before 100Mb/s IrDA and so it will continue to be an also-ran.

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  4. Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can stream Video from my remote control ! Take that TV !

  5. Multiplex more tv channels by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I can talk to my tv at 100mpbs I can change channels much quicker and theoretically watch more channels at once.

    (for all those people who flick backwards and forewards between 2 channels watching both programs - TV watching for the multitasking generation)

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  6. Re:Current Speed? by Avtar · · Score: 5, Informative

    IrDa can manage serial port speed, 128Kb. Bluetooth V1 can transfer data at 1Mb and Bluetooth v2 can transfer data at 2Mb

  7. I think this is quite cool by el_womble · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I miss line of sight communications. Now I can see that when the range is measured in miles or 10s of yards line of site is probably a real issue, but when its measured in feetor inches its actually really neat.

    Bluetooth is cool, I wouldn't want a LOS headset, or xbox controller and it is cool being able to sync or connect to your phone whilst its still in your pocket. But handshaking is a PITA. Say a friend of mine wants to send me a photo from his groovy new phone to my apple. I can do it with bluetooth, but I have to pair it first (grrrr). In the bad old days of ir, all he had to do was point his phone at my laptop press send, then I accepted the transmission and it magically appeared on my desktop. Sweet.

    For fast, one time transmission, this technology could really make life easier. You don't have to know what WLAN to connect to, you don't have pair, you don't have to worry about firewalls or connection settings or network contention. You just fire and forget. Its not replacement for bluetooth, its complimentary.

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  8. IR is a great idea for small portable devices by glug101 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok, long time reader, first time poster, great website love the topic....

    Infra red communication holds a lot of promise for small portable devices. Yes, it is line of site, but that is an advantage for secure connections. So and so on the street can't hack your pda while it's in your pocket, for instance.

    Another advantage is the low power consumption. The led's used for this convert >99% of the electricity put into them into usable light. (real world performance for the system might vary) I don't know what the efficiency is for blue tooth, but I would be surprised if it's that good for ANY rf based device.

    I have used ir on my palm device and it works great (if slow thanks to the UART limit). Simple and efficient. Point and send. Wouldn't use it to surf the internet for any long period of time, but I wouldn't want to on a device that small anyway. (no screen real estate)