Bluetooth Demystified

By: David8 Maine8 Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Bluetooth is a wire-free communications technology intended to pass digital information between electric appliances across short distances. It was invented by boffins working for mobile phone manufacturer Ericsson in Sweden, who were on the lookout for a short range wireless communications alternative to methods such as infra-red, as used on television remotes, and FM radio. The major problem with these existing technologies is that they are all prone to interference coming from other appliances using the same frequencies, a problem which would be exacerbated by any widespread increase in their use.

Bluetooth gets around this potential difficulty by transmitting very weak signals, at a measly 1 MW as compared to the 3 Watts that are being blasted around by the typical mobile phone . The other way in which Bluetooth manages to avoid interference problems is by using a technique known as spread-spectrum frequency hopping, which involves the transmission frequency changing 1600 times per second between the 80 distinct radio frequencies that are employed by Bluetooth devices.

Bluetooth devices automatically form a basic wireless network connection with any other bluetooth devices available within a 10 metre radius. If two devices are permitted to communicate by the user, for example, if you had set up your printer to talk to your phone via Bluetooth, they would automatically recognise the presence of each other and begin talking to each other when brought within this radius. The maximum data transfer speed is 720Mbit/second, which is comparable with most basic broadband connections. You can connect up to eight Bluetooth devices together simultaneously, although data transfer between them may be slower as they all have to share the same 720Mbit data transfer throughput between them.

To date, however, the most popular use for the protocol has been to provide mobile phone users with a way of talking on their mobile phones remotely, that is to say, away from the mobile phone itself, using a Bluetooth headset or similar device. There are two main advantages to this approach. Firstly, it allows you to speak hands-free, leaving your hands free for more pressing matters such as operating a vehicle or tapping away at a keyboard. Secondly, due to the low levels of energy required by Bluetooth transmitters, you are exposed to far less in the way of heat and potentially harmful radiation than would be the case if you had used a wired headset or your mobile handset.

Bluetooth technology is now so popular that many of the major mobile phone service providers such as 3 and Vodafone now offer free wireless Bluetooth accessories such as headsets with the majority of their mobile phone bundles.

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About The Author:

David Maine is author of this article on mobile phones. Find more information about mobile phones here.