Over the last 25 years, short-range wireless connectivity technologies, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Near-Field Communication (NFC), have revolutionized the world in which we live, enabling an enormous connected device ecosystem that is projected to reach an installed base of 48 billion devices in 2023. In recent years, new connectivity technologies, such as Ultra-Wideband (UWB), have entered the market, promising to enable new use cases and experiences across a wide range of applications. These technologies have all undergone significant transformations since their inception, dramatically increasing performance, efficiency, reliability, security, and scalability, alongside bringing additional feature enhancements that enable them to better service certain targeted applications. Taking Wi-Fi as an example, if we compare single-band 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) 802.11b and its several Megabits per Second (Mbps) throughput with recent real-world demonstrations of over 5 Gigabits per Second (Gbps) throughput via tri-band 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7), it is hard to believe that the two technologies fall under the same umbrella. In the same vein, Bluetooth’s evolution from what was a high-power consumption, audio-centric technology in its Classic form, to a leading low-power wireless technology for Internet of Things (IoT) applications in the form of Bluetooth Low Energy (LE), is a further testament to the continued progress and expansion of the short-range wireless connectivity market over the last couple of decades.
