ARTICLES ABOUT BLUETOOTH TECHNOLOGIES

Constantly evolving, the technology of Bluetooth started off as a basic wireless connection standard but has since then been adapted and proven with many different uses and functions.

A good example is Bluetooth for cell phones. It enables mobile users to connect to their hands free headset without using wires. Bluetooth technology will also allow mobile phone users to connect with their hands free kit as well.

Another handy use of Bluetooth is file sharing. It allows the sharing of files between two cell phones, between a cell phone and computer, which makes the sharing of files a snap. If you have a cell phone and computer, you can easily transfer data between the two.

Say for example you wanted to put an MP3 on your phone from your computer you could do it easily with Bluetooth. All you would need is a Bluetooth adapter for your computer. It doesn't stop with the swapping of files either,as you can use your computer and phone to synchronise phone books, send SMS messages, and much more.



Although Bluetooth may be dandy for cell phones, it also comes in handy for the home office as well. Utilizing Bluetooth is a great way to set up a home office - two computers, a printer, and even a scanner. They all can be connected using Bluetooth technology with effective ranges of up to 10 meters.

The technology and devices of Bluetooth will be around for years and years to come. As years go by, Bluetooth will provide even better wireless solutions for different applications. Even though Bluetooth has a short range, it has that short range for a reason. Bluetooth is easily the best in wireless technology - which it continues to prove time and time again.

Bluetooth is easily the best in wireless handheld technology. When it comes to learning, Bluetooth can get quite complicated. To help you, you'll find the key learning points of Bluetooth below:

1. Bluetooth is an energy efficient, lowoverhead communication protocol that's ideal for interdevice communications.
2. Unlike infrared, Bluetooth doesn't require a line of sight.
3. Depending on the implementation, Bluetooth can have a range of up to 100 meters.
4. The specification of Bluetooth consists of a Foundation Profile Document and a Foundation Core Document.
5. The protocol stack for Bluetooth consists of core protocols, cable protocols, and even adapted protocols.
6. The transmitter operates around the 2.4 GHz frequency band.
7. The data channel will change frequency, or hops, 1,600 times in a second, between the 79 allocated channels in the ISM band.
8. Bluetooth utilizes a spread spectrum frequency hopping RF characteristic to ensure that independant networking operates when the other devices are in range.
9. A piconet is formed when one or more devices open up a channel of communication.
10. A piconet can have a master and up to seven slaves.
11. Communication of the interdevice is based on the concepts of channels.
12. All Bluetooth devices are capable of transmitting voice.
13. The channel has a total capacity of 1 MB per second.
14. There are two types of channels with Bluetooth - SCO (Synchronous Connection Oriented) and ACL (Asynchronous Connectionless).
15. The SCO channels are time oriented, and are therefore primarily used for transferring time critical data such as voice.
16. ACL channels are normally used for communicating data.
17. Data contained in a packet can be up to 2,745 bits in length.
18. In a single piconet, there can be up to three SCO links containing 64,000 bits a second each.
19. To avoid collision and timing problems, SCO links are reserved slots that are set up by the master.
20. The masters can support up to three SCO links with either one, two, or three slaves.
21. The slots that aren't reserved for SCO links can be used as ACL links.
22. The LMP (Link Management Protocol) will handle link level security, error corrections, and the establishment of communications links.
23. The LMP packets will have priority over user packets that originate and form the L2CAP layer.
24. The L2CAP layer will ensure an acceptable quality of service.
25. No more than one ACL link can exist at the L2CAP layer.

The technology of Bluetooth will take small area networking to the next level by removing the need for user intervention and help keep transmission power very low to preserve battery power. Each transmission signal to and from your cellular phone will use just 1 mw of power, giving you plenty of space on your battery to talk.

Bluetooth is a networking standard that will work on two levels:

1. It will provide agreement at the physical level, as Bluetooth is a radio frequency standard.
2. It will provide agreement at the level of protocol, where products will have to agree on when bits are sent, how many are sent, and how the parties in conversation can be sure the message recieved is the same one that was sent.
   

The major draws to Bluetooth is the fact that it's wireless, inexpensive, and automatic. There
are other ways to get around wires, including infrared. Infrared uses light waves of a lower
frequency than the human eye can, and is normally used in television remote controls.

The technology of Bluetooth is intended to get around the problems that normally come with
infrared systems. The 1.0 older standard of Bluetooth has a max transfer speed of 1 MB a
second, while the 2.0 Bluetooth standard can manage up to 3.0 MB a second. To make things
better, 2.0 is compatible with 1.0 devices.

As a solution to wireless, Bluetooth will eliminate the need for messy cords, keeping everything nice and neat. It's perfect for those who like to talk on cell phones, as you no longer need to hold the phone next to your ear - which is great for those who travel a lot.

Because it meets the basic needs of connectivity in close range, Bluetooth has a very bright future ahead of it. Bluetooth is actually the result of initiatives from nine leading communications and computer industry giants, including 3-COM, Sony, Lucent, IBM, Nokia, Microsoft, etc.

Since the forming of the original group, more than 1,800 manufacturers around the world have joined the initiative. According to reports, the Bluetooth technology is expected to be built into more than 100 million devices, with over 670 million enabled Bluetooth devices.



Resulting from the amazing success of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), the adoption of smart phones and hand held devices, Bluetooth can easily have an amazing impact on your day to day life. Bluetooth is one of the key technologies that can help to make the mobile information society happen, by blurring the possibilities between home, the office, and the outside world.

The seamless integration and connectivity that Bluetooth promises will make it possible to explore a wide range of interactive and highly transparent personalized services which were actually quite difficult to dream of simply because of the complexity involved with making such devices communicate with each other.

Many Bluetooth pilot products have already been rolled into the market and backed by big vendors, which is a healthy sign for the overall acceptance of the technology. The support for Bluetooth isn't limited to companies that develop only Bluetooth enabled products.

The applications for Bluetooth can have great impacts on other industries as well. The adoption of Bluetooth technology is expected to spread throughout the industry of computers.

Unlike infrared technology, Bluetooth is used by many different wireless devices. Bluetooth offers exceptional quality for short range wireless, even going through walls and obstructions. While infrared is the biggest competitor at this time, Bluetooth far surpasses it, proving to millions that it is the wireless communication technology of the present day and age.

In the beginning, Bluetooth started with version 1.0, then gradually moved from there. The current version is 2.0+EDR, with another version currently in development. The technology behind the Bluetooth specification always getting better and better, which is why it's so popular.

In the future, you can expect the technology behind Bluetooth to get better. Bluetooth has
proven to be the wireless standard of the future, offering you wireless connectability for hundreds of different devices. For cell phones or other forms of wireless connections, Bluetooth is the one technology that you don't want to find yourself without.

The amazing technology of Bluetooth presents a great way of exchanging data between two wireless devices. Unlike telephones, there are no wires or messy leads to worry about. You can enjoy wireless communications with short distances of up to thirty feet.

Bluetooth also offers interoperability, meaning that you can use your portable Bluetooth device to connect with existing Bluetooth points. This way, you won't have to carry a data lead or CDs of drivers around with you everywhere you go. You can enjoy the best of wireless without having to worry about installing your software.



With today's Bluetooth, you can use your PDA and cell phone to surf the net or check emails as you travel. If you are in the business field, this can be very beneficial, especially if you like to check your email throughout the day. Bluetooth will enable you to check your email no matter where you are - which is great news for those who like to travel.

Bluetooth will also enable to you to transfer files as well, such as MP3 and photo to and from your mobile device. Bluetooth dominates the world of short range wireless, enabling you to do more than you may have thought possible.

One of the best things to Bluetooth and something everyone loves is the wireless headset. Bluetooth offers wire free headsets for your cell phone or computer, which is great for those who like to walk around or talk on the phone in the car, without having to worry about your hands getting in the way.

To make things even better, you can use a Bluetooth GPS device for satellite navigation on your PDA, laptop, or mobile. If you travel - this can be really great to have.

Bluetooth devices will normally operate at 2.4 GHZ in the license free, globally available ISM radio band. The advantage to this band includes worldwide availability and compatibility. A disadvantage to this however, is that the devices must share this band with other RF emitters. This includes automobile security systems, other wireless devices, and other noise sources, such as microwaves.



To overcome this challenge, Bluetooth employs a fast frequency hopping scheme and therefore uses shorter packets than other standards within the ISM band. This scheme helps to make Bluetooth communication more robust and more secure.

Frequency hopping
Frequency hopping is basically jumping from frequency to frequency within the ISM radio band. After a bluetooth device sends or receives a packet, it and the device (or devices) it's communicating with hop to another frequency before the next packet is sent. This scheme offers three advantages:

1. Allows Bluetooth devices to use the entirety of the available ISM band, while never transmitting from a fixed frequency for more than a short period of time. This helps insure that Bluetooth conforms to the ISM restrictions on the transmission quantity per frequency.
2. Ensures that any interference won't last long. Any packet that doesn't arrive safely to its destination can be resent to the next frequency.
3. Provides a base level of security as it's very hard for an eavesdropping device to predict which frequency the Bluetooth devices will use next.
   

The connected devices however, must agree upon the frequency they will use next. The specification in Bluetooth ensures this in two ways. First, it defines a master and slave type relationship between bluetooth devices. Next, it specifies an algorithm that uses device specific information when calculating the frequency hop sequences.

A Bluetooth device that operates in master mode can communicate with up to seven devices that are set in slave mode. To each of the slaves, the master Bluetooth device will send its own unique address and the value of its own internal clock. The information sent is then used to calculate the frequency hop sequences.

Because the master device and each of the slave devices use the same algorithm with the same initial input, the connected devices will always arrive together at the next frequency that they have agreed upon.

As a replacement for cable technology, it's no wonder that Bluetooth devices are usually battery powered, such as wireless mice and battery powered cell phones. To conserve the power, most devices operate in low power. This helps to give Bluetooth devices a range of around 5 - 10 meters.

This range is far enough for wireless communication but close enough to avoid drawing too much power from the power source of the device.

Bluetooth was designed to allow low bandwidth wireless connections to become easy to use so even those who are new to wireless can use them. Version 1.1 of Bluetooth describes a low power, short range wireless networking technology that uses radio waves to send data at rates up to 720 kilobits a second.



The specification for Bluetooth provides for different classes of radio that allow transmission ranges of up to 100 meters by boosting the radio power. The technology of Bluetooth isn't limited to line of sight transmission since it uses directional waves that are capable of transmitting through many obstructions.

Bluetooth is an industry standard communication of wireless, meaning that it enables the connection of other devices as well, such as cell phones, computers, digital cameras, and other types of electronic devices. The specification of Bluetooth defines a radio system and a "stack" of protocol layers and profiles. The highest layer is the application layer, while the lowest layer is the radio.

The wireless technology of Bluetooth is positioned to revolutionize the personal connectivity market by providing freedom from inconvenient fixed type lines.

The specification for Bluetooth eliminates the need for cables by providing a small form factor, low cost wireless solution that will link computers, cell phones, and other electronics. Bluetooth also allows users to connect many ranges of devices quickly and easily and expands communications capabilities as well.

The size of the Bluetooth radio is amazing, as a Bluetooth radio can be built into one or two very small microchips then integrated into any electronic device where wireless operations would be an advantage.

Bluetooth also offers a robust link, which ensures that normal operating circumstances are not interrupted by interference from other signals that are operating in the same frequency band.

Also known for its worldwide operation, Bluetooth radio operates in the 2.4 GHz frequency band, which is license free and available to any type of radio system in the world. No matter where you are in the world, you count on Bluetooth to work.

Security is also important. Offering advanced security mechanisms, Bluetooth ensures a high level of security. Therefore, authentification will prevent unauthorized acess to important data and make it very difficult to listen in.

Bluetooth also boasts power optimization. The radio is power friendly and the software for Bluetooth is very configurable, limiting the power consumption of equipment. The radio itself only consumes a small amount of power from a cellular phone.