New USB standard for wireless connections is ready

The organization that manages the USB standards has approved a specification for a USB variant that does not require physical USB connections. The standard should enable gigabit speeds, the organization promises.

Completion of the specification has been announced by the USB Implementers Forum. With the standard, media agnostic USB, the USB protocol can also be used without using a physical USB connection.

This is possible, for example, over WiFi connections, where both 2.4GHz and 5GHz connections are supported, but in principle any wireless connection can be used. It is currently not clear how to pair two devices with ma-usb.

Thanks to the stand, for example, a telephone or a tablet can be connected wirelessly to a PC. In combination with wireless charging, a device would theoretically never need a physical connection again. The standard should offer gigabit speeds, although the actual speed also depends on the wireless technology used. For example, that speed will never be achieved over 2.4GHz WiFi, but WiGig on 60GHz is also supported. MA-USB is compatible with USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and USB 3.1.

However, the firmware of both devices that are connected via USB must support the standard. The previous wireless USB standard, wireless-usb, never really broke through. However, that standard only supported USB connections over wimedia ultrawideband, a technique that never became popular. Because the new wireless USB standard also supports WiFi, ma-usb should become popular, the USB forum hopes.