Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Bluetooth links get simpler

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2003 13:19:44 -0400

Bluetooth links get simpler

Bill Pechey, IT Week [02-07-2003]

A new version of the Bluetooth wireless standard was
previewed at the Bluetooth Congress this month, and
vendors appeared increasingly confident about the
technology's future in consumer and corporate hardware.
However, there are still concerns regarding usability and
interoperability if customers use Bluetooth equipment from
multiple vendors.

Bluetooth version 1.2 is still being tested and is not likely to
be ratified before November at the earliest; and the first
Bluetooth 1.2 products are not expected until March 2004,
according to experts.

The 2003 Bluetooth Congress in Amsterdam differed from
previous events in that there was an air of maturity about
the standards work and products.

Interoperability problems have been considerably reduced,
but the goal of guaranteed interoperability between
products is not yet achieved. Mike McCamon, executive
director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) that
controls the Bluetooth standard, said he is keen to fix this
and has appointed a full-time "interoperability czar".
Some users are confused about Bluetooth profiles, which
specify how devices work with each other. A Bluetooth
headset, for example, would be expected to work with a
phone that uses the headset profile, but what about the
profile for hands-free equipment? To tackle this problem,
McCamon said that the SIG may set up an online database
listing products which are compatible with each other.
The forthcoming Bluetooth 1.2 standard adds adaptive
frequency hopping (AFH) to improve tolerance to
interference, especially when close to 802.11b wireless LAN
(WLAN) kit that shares the same 2.4GHz portion of the
radio spectrum. There are also improvements to quality of
service for voice functions. Bluetooth version 1.2 supports
multiple simultaneous connections - which will enable a user
to take a call using their Bluetooth headset while their
phone is synchronising with their laptop.

The old problem of Bluetooth co-existing with WLANs has
been addressed, and there are new adapter cards offering
Bluetooth and WLAN on the same module. Some industry
experts predict that within a year, most new WLAN cards
will also support Bluetooth.

Several vendors are now shipping their second- or
third-generation Bluetooth headsets. Plantronics now offers
eight hours of talk time and 200 hours on standby with its
M3000 headset, which matches most mobile phones.
Cambridge Silicon Radio's (CSR) new Bluecore3 range offers
single-chip solutions for headsets and other applications at
low cost.

The next big Bluetooth application will be in the mouse and
keyboard market, according to chip firm Broadcom. This
would remove cable clutter around desktop PCs and make
text entry easier in PDAs and mobile phones.
The firm has developed a low-power Bluetooth chip that
replaces all the circuitry in a keyboard or mouse, which
should mean that future Bluetooth peripherals will cost little
more than current wired designs.

TDK announced a range of products called Blu2I that make
it easy for hardware vendors to add Bluetooth to existing
products. These are modules with a built-in Bluetooth stack
that plug into host equipment via industry-standard
interfaces and protocols such as RS-232 serial.
Sony gave an impressive demonstration of a proprietary
extension to Bluetooth, named Feel. When two Sony
products with this technology are within wireless range,
they will recognise each other and connect automatically.
This makes the products easier to use, but raises the
question of how such proprietary extensions can be
allowed without harming interoperability with other
vendors' products.

http://www.vnunet.com/Analysis/1141976

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