Bluetooth Networking guide - beyond personal area networks

Bluetooth is a short range wireless digital communication technology. It was developed as a low cost, low power way of removing many of the data wires between devices. This concept is called a PAN or Personal Area Network.

Bluetooth can remove the wires from your printer allowing your computers or PDA to print directly to it wirelessly. It can remove the wires from your mouse, your joystick, your digital camera and can replace the cradle you drop your PDA into to synchronize your calendar. On an even more personal level, it can remove the wires between your cell phone and a hands-free headset.

Then there is the mobile Internet aspect. Why not push IP over this digital communication channel? Using a digital cell phone with bluetooth and a bluetooth PDA, you can wirelessly surf the internet or get your email. Sony even makes a camcorder that will surf the web over a bluetooth cel phone using bluetooth.

Over 2002, we will see many products introduced that are bluetooth enabled. It may very well be a bluetooth Christmas.

Here are the facts. Bluetooth has a range of about 30 feet. It also has a maximum throughput of 1.5Mbps. Bluetooth might be good to put in a Webpad to surf the internet, but it's too slow to move good size files between your computers. A typical MP3 file is 3Mb. That would take about 20 seconds or so to move between two bluetooth devices. In contrast, 802.11b could have moved 5-7 of those files in that time.

Bluetooth is currently running around $100 to $130 per device, but the original intent was to bring the cost down to $20 or $30. Apple just released a bluetooth USB adapter (made by D-Link) for its Macontosh line that retails for only $49. As usual, apple is leading the way.

Bluetooth in Sony DV recorders and here

 

Bluetooth Networking guide - beyond personal area networks