ions. This task group is working on an alternative physical layer for piconets with a 30-foot (10-m) range and for a minimum data rate of 110Mbps. The higher data rates being considered by the 802.15.3a Task Group will enable a host of new applications, including the likes of wireless digital TV, high- definition MPEG-2 motion picture transfer, DVD playback, and digital video cam- corders. This 802.15.3a PHY work is currently under consideration. The 802.15.3b Task Group is working on an amendment to 802.15.3 improve implementation and interoperability of the MAC layer, including minor WPANs optimizations, while preserving backward compatibility. The intention is for this amendment to correct errors, clarify ambiguities, and add editorial clarifications. Another interest group (802.15.41Ga) is gathering companies to create a study group to look at support for low-data-rate applications. The term ultra-wideband is often used to refer to anything associated with very large bandwidth, and indeed, one of the reasons UWB is called Ultra-Wideband is that it spreads its signal over a very wide band of frequencies. Depending on the application, the actual frequency band used ranges from 960MHz to 10.6GHz. On a more specific basis, in relationship to radio communications, UWB refers to a technique based on transmitting very short-duration pulses, where the occupied bandwidth is very large, allowing for very high data rates. UWB has a spectrum that occupies a bandwidth greater than 20% of the center frequency, or a bandwidth of at least 500MHz. UWB also uses only a small amount of power and operates in the same bands as existing communications without pro- ducing significant interference. Furthermore, UWB is not limited to wireless com- munications; it can use twisted-pair and coax cables as well, with the potential to transmit data at rates of 1Gbps or faster. Very importantly, UWB complements other longer-range radio technologies, such as Wi-Fi, WiMax, and cellular WANs. It is used to relay data from a host device to oth