COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The IEEE 802.15.4a task group, working on a wireless personal-area network (PAN) standard for the low-rate industrial market, has chosen the chirp spread spectrum physical-layer technology designed by Nanotron Technologies GmbH (Berlin) as the baseline physical-layer standard.

Following the demise of the 802.3 ultrawideband PAN standard last year, 802.15.4a was seen as one of the core potential UWB applications within PANs. After winning several letter ballots, the standard passed its first sponsor ballot with a 94-percent approval rating.

The network is intended for real-time precision location and sensor networks. Former 802.15.4a vice chair Jason Ellis of Staccato Communications has described the network as a combination of ZigBee and RFID, though its 2-Mbit/s data rates and low power consumption are optimized for factory and medical applications rather than home or enterprise use.

Nanotron plans to offer chips based on chirp spread spectrum that can be used in either indoor applications with ranges up to 60 meters or outdoor applications out to 900 meters.