Introduction
Twice a year Intel hosts the Intel Developer Forum to gather developers and brief them on the latest technological advances. The major focus is (of course) on Intel hardware like Itanium, P4, and so on. However, there were a few sessions that dealt with technologies that managed to escape Intel’s big shadow. One of these is Bluetooth, the open and global specification for short-distance wireless voice and data communication. The Bluetooth sessions were so crowded that even the overflow-space overflowed. Obviously there is a lot of interest in this technology.
The Bluetooth development is driven by a special interest group (SIG) that started out with nine members about one year ago: Ericsson, Nokia, IBM, Intel, Toshiba, 3Com, Lucent, Microsoft and Motorola. Today the SIG has more than 1800 members from all kinds of different industry segments like semiconductors, telecommunication, computing & peripherals, consumer, networking, automotive — just to a name a few.
Currently the Bluetooth specifications include two distances — 30 feet (10 m), and 300 feet (100 m) with amplification — with a symbol rate of 1 Mbps transmitting over the 2.4 GHz ISM band (almost worldwide). Some companies are also considering the 5 GHz ISM band for future technologies. Bluetooth uses circuit and packet switching and supports point-to-point and multi-point connections. The standard interfaces include USB, UART and PCMCIA. But Bluetooth is not just a replacement for all those connection cables dangling from the PC, but it can also serve as a data and voice access point in the home, the enterprise (LAN), and in public places like hotel and airport lounges. Contrary to another wireless candidate, IrDA that actually uses infrared technology, Bluetooth is not blocked by solid objects like walls and the user can stay connected while moving around.
Bluetooth Architecture
As with most new innovative technologies the initial target market is the so-called ‘road warrior’ — people with a job that requires them to travel a lot. Next on the list are the high-end consumer and the early adopter. There are many applications that can benefit from Bluetooth: For example portable and handheld devices (cell phones, PDAs, digital cordless phones, digital cameras), adapters, PC Cards, dongles, and headsets, PCs, printers and faxes, and so on. And these are just applications from the computer and communications industry. There are many other sectors like medical, industrial or security where Bluetooth would make a lot of sense. The Cahners In-Stat Group predicts that by 2005 there will be 1.5 Billion Bluetooth-enabled devices out there! Digital mobile phones will be the largest market, followed by desktop PCs and portable computing devices.
In the next 3 — 12 months we are going to see quite a few rollouts of Bluetooth products. In the telecommunications space Alcatel plans to introduce OneTouch 700/500 GSM phones, Ericsson wants to offer new Tri-Band phones, a headset and Bluetooth adapter for T28, T28 World and R320 phones, as well as PC Card Type II, and Nokia will come out with a handset adapter and a handset. Nomad Networks and HP are going to equip TWA clubs and gate areas with Bluetooth, and Red-M plans to ship a wireless Internet server. And then there is of course a whole line-up of computer-related Bluetooth products like Compact Flash Cards (Socket Communications), PC Cards (Widcomm, Proxim, Motorola, Toshiba, 3Com), printer adapters (Troy), notebooks (NEC, Toshiba), just to name a few. Of course Intel has a few Bluetooth devices as well, like PC adapters, access points, and PC components (Ambler). For more information about Bluetooth and the newest products visit the Bluetooth Website.
