UniPro and system integration UniPro is specifically targeted by MIPI to simplify the creation of increasingly complex products. This implies a relatively long-term vision about future handset architectures composed of modular subsystems interconnected via stable, standardized, but flexible network interfaces. It also implies a relatively long-term vision about the expected or desired structure of the mobile handset industry, whereby components can readily interoperate and components from competing suppliers are to some degree
plug compatible. Similar architectures have emerged in other domains (e.g. automotive networks, largely standardized PC architectures, IT industry around the Internet protocols) for similar reasons of interoperability and economy of scale. It is nevertheless too early to predict how rapidly UniPro will be adopted by the mobile phone industry.
High bandwidth and costs High speed interconnects like UniPro,
USB or
PCI Express typically cost more than low speed interconnects (e.g.
I2C,
SPI or simple
CMOS interfaces). This is for example because of the silicon area occupied by the required mixed-signal circuitry (Layer 1), as well as due to the complexity and buffer space required to automatically correct bit errors. UniPro's cost and complexity may thus be an issue for certain low bandwidth UniPro devices.
Adoption rate As Metcalfe postulated, the value of a network technology scales with the square of the number of devices which use that technology. This makes any new cross-vendor interconnect technology only as valuable as the commitment of its proponents and the resulting likelihood that the technology will become self-sustaining. Although UniPro is backed by a number of major companies and that the UniPro incubation time is more or less in line with comparable technologies (
USB,
Internet Protocol,
Bluetooth, in-vehicle networks), adoption rate is presumed to be main concern about the technology. This is especially true because the mobile industry has virtually no track record on hardware standards which pertain to the internals of the product. A key driver for UniPro adoption is JEDEC Universal Flash Storage (UFS) v2.0 which uses MIPI UniPro and M-PHY as the basis for the standard. There are several implementation of the standard which are expected to hit the market
Availability of application protocols Interoperability requires more than just alignment between the peer UniPro devices on protocol layer L1–L4: it also means aligning on more application-specific data formats, commands and their meaning, and other protocol elements. This is a known intrinsically unsolvable problem in all design methodologies: you can agree on standard and reusable "plumbing" (lower hardware/software/network layers), but that doesn't automatically get you alignment on the detailed semantics of even a trivial command like ChangeVolume(value) or the format of a media stream. Practical approaches thus call for a mix of several approaches: • If the previous generation interconnect worked, there was some kind of solution. Consider reusing/tunneling/porting it with minimal changes. • There are many reusable application-specific industry standards (like commands to control a radio, audio formats,
MPEG). • Tunnel major technologies over UniPro. If you interact with the
IP world, it is sensible to provide IP-over-UniPro. • Use application-specific software drivers. This only works for limited data rates and pushes the interoperability problem into an internal software interoperability problem, but is a well understood approach. • Turn existing software interfaces into protocols. In some cases the transformation can be simple or even automated if the original
APIs have the right architecture.
Licensing The Membership Agreement of the MIPI Alliance specifies the licensing conditions for MIPI specifications for member companies. Royalty-free licensing conditions apply within the main target domain of the MIPI Alliance, mobile phones and their peripherals, whereas
RAND licensing conditions apply in all other domains. == See also==