(Infrared Data Association, Walnut Creek, CA) A membership organization founded in 1993 for infrared transmission between computers. Requiring line-of-sight like a TV remote, devices could exchange data without cables. Although products such as the LaserJet 5P printer appeared with IrDA ports in the mid-1990s, IrDA gave way to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Speeds and Protocols
The IrDA Serial IR physical layer (IrDA-SIR) used a low-cost UART chip for a half-duplex 115.2 Kbps connection, while non-UART Fast Infrared (FIR) reached 4 Mbps. The HDLC-based Infrared Link Access Protocol (IrLAP) was the data link protocol, and handshaking and multiplexing were provided by the Infrared Link Management Protocol (IrLMP). See
UART,
HDLC and
data link protocol.