New Bluetooth allows mobile hot spots

Tue Apr 19, 2005 4:07 am            

The latest enhancements to Bluetooth could push the personal-area network technology further into competition with other wireless options.

Most wireless networks have some overlap in application, though each tends to have a special sweet spot. One Bluetooth application I hadn't considered until Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) executive director Mike Foley mentioned it was creating a personal wireless hot spot for Internet access out of a Bluetooth PAN, mobile phone, and cellular service.

By way of background: As you may know, last November, the Bluetooth SIG made the Bluetooth Version 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) specification available.

To date, the only product actually supporting it is the Apple PowerBook, says Foley. However, Bluetooth 2.0-enhanced mobile phones and headsets are expected around mid-year or so.

Higher speed allows Bluetooth hotspots
The potential for the Bluetooth-plus-cellular hot spot application derives from the increase in Bluetooth speeds from a maximum of 1 Mbit/s to a maximum of 3 Mbit/s in Version 2.0 and the growing availability of higher-speed cellular network services. A short-range Bluetooth connection within a hotel room or small office could take full advantage of that bandwidth. The mobile handset in this scenario would serve as a cellular modem.

The primary intended applications of the enhancements in 2.0, of course, are such things as accelerating the synchronisation of mobile phones with PCs. Also, designers could enhance battery life in headsets; with mobile devices transmitting three times as fast, devices could go into deep-sleep mode faster, points out Foley. Alternatively, designers could create smaller headsets with reduced weight.

And Bluetooth could take on ZigBee
In addition, Foley expects Bluetooth to take on ZigBee in small sensor networks-say, in the 100- to 200-node range. He envisions, for example, industry-floor conveyor belts with Bluetooth sensors monitoring production progress in cases where there are a small number of data collection points. Or, home networks might have a computer serving as a "hub" device with short-reach wireless Bluetooth tentacles communicating with sensors in, say, doors and windows for a home security system and supporting a cellular phone connection, which is more burglar-proof than a wire that can be cut.

In 2005, the SIG intends to release a Bluetooth spec that, among other things, improves power consumption such that a Bluetooth sensor could last for multiple years on a single battery - one of ZigBee's claims to fame

Sun Jun 25, 2006 3:58 pm