Introduction to Bluetooth

Bluetooth™ is a short-range (10 - 100 m.) international wireless communications standard. It was originated by Ericsson, before being adopted by many other companies.

Bluetooth is normally implemented on a small, cheap radio chip which is then plugged into computers, printers, mobile phones, etc. This chip is designed to replace cables by taking the information normally carried by the cable, and transmitting it at a special frequency to a receiver Bluetooth chip, which will then pass the information received to the computer or phone.

 

Name

The Bluetooth name originally came from a Danish Viking and King, Harald Blåtand (translated as Bluetooth in English), who lived in the latter part of the 10th century. Harald Blåtand united and controlled Denmark and Norway (hence the inspiration on the name: uniting devices through Bluetooth). He got his name from his very dark hair which was unusual for Vikings, Blåtand means dark complexion. However a more popular, (but less likely reason), was that Old Harald had a inclination towards eating Blueberries , so much so his teeth became stained with the colour, leaving Harald with a rather unique set of molars.

 

Interference

Bluetooth wireless technology's Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) capability was explicitly designed to reduce interference between wireless technologies sharing the 2.4 GHz spectrum. AFH works within the spectrum to take advantage of the available frequency. This is achieved by detecting other devices in the spectrum and avoiding the frequencies they are using. This 'adaptive hopping' allows for more efficient transmission within the spectrum, thereby providing the user with greater performance, even if using other technologies along with the Bluetooth wireless technology.

 

Range

• Class 2 radios - most commonly found in mobile devices - have a range of 10 meters or 30 feet.
• Class 1 radios - used primarily in industrial use cases - have a range of 100 meters or 300 feet

Power

The most commonly used radio (class 3) uses 1mW of power; Bluetooth wireless technology is designed to use very low power consumption; the specification reinforces this by allowing radios to be powered down when they are not active.

 

Membership

There are over 3400 members in the Special Interest Group. Member companies include IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, DaimlerChrysler, Palm, ECKey, are all provide various implementation of these standards.

Three Million Units

Over three million Bluetooth products ship globally per week.

 

Multiple Industries/Breadth of Products

Bluetooth technology touches a number of industries like no other wireless technology. From computing and networking to consumer electronics, automotive, and even medical and industrial, there are innumerable uses for Bluetooth wireless technology. At this time, there are over 1700 different products with Bluetooth technology on the market - Bluetooth wireless technology is not only used in the everyday lives of consumers, but in hospital surgical units and delivery automation scenarios.

 

Qualification

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group oversees testing and qualification of all products bearing the Bluetooth trademark. This program is currently being enhanced to provide even higher interoperability standards for product manufacturers.

 

Security

Bluetooth wireless technology was built with security in mind. That said, there have been several issues brought to the forefront this year that have shown a light on security within Bluetooth products. The Special Interest Group works with members to eliminate issues and continues to update the specification and include security enhancements. The Special Interest Group also encourages consumers to use long alphanumeric PINs, pair in private and keep devices undiscoverable when not in use to reduce vulnerability. The roadmap announced Nov. 8, 2004, features security enhancements for the technology in 2005 and 2006. The Special Interest Group is also working with A.L. Digital to test the security of Bluetooth devices at UnPlugFests.