The art of connecting things is becoming more and more complex every day. In this article, we will look at a method of connecting devices, called Bluetooth, that can streamline the process.
What is Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs)or piconet. Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, laptops, Personal computer, printers, digital cameras, and video game consoles over a secure, globally unlicensed short-range radio frequency.
Bluetooth simplifies the discovery and setup of services between devices. Bluetooth devices advertise all of the services they provide. This makes using services easier because there is no longer a need to setup network addresses or permissions as in many other networks.
How Bluetooth Operates:
Bluetooth networking transmits data via low-power radio waves. It communicates on a frequency of 2.45 gigahertz (actually between 2.402 GHz and 2.480 GHz, to be exact). This frequency band has been set aside by international agreement for the use of industrial, scientific and medical devices (ISM).
One of the ways Bluetooth devices avoid interfering with other systems is by sending out very weak signals of about 1 milliwatt. By comparison, the most powerful cell phones can transmit a signal of 3 watts. The low power limits the range of a Bluetooth device to about 10 meters (32 feet), cutting the chances of interference between your computer system and your portable telephone or television. Even with the low power, Bluetooth doesn't require line of sight between communicating devices. The walls in your house won't stop a Bluetooth signal, making the standard useful for controlling several devices in different rooms.
Bluetooth can connect up to eight devices simultaneously. With all of those devices in the same 10-meter (32-foot) radius, you might think they'd interfere with one another, but it's unlikely. Bluetooth uses a technique called spread-spectrum frequency hopping that makes it rare for more than one device to be transmitting on the same frequency at the same time. In this technique, a device will use 79 individual, randomly chosen frequencies within a designated range, changing from one to another on a regular basis.
In the case of Bluetooth, the transmitters change frequencies 1,600 times every second, meaning that more devices can make full use of a limited slice of the radio spectrum. Since every Bluetooth transmitter uses spread-spectrum transmitting automatically, it’s unlikely that two transmitters will be on the same frequency at the same time. This same technique minimizes the risk that portable phones or baby monitors will disrupt Bluetooth devices, since any interference on a particular frequency will last only a tiny fraction of a second.
Advantages:
An economic wireless solution (both data & voice) for short distance.A global technology specification - an universal radio interface in 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band Stationary & mobile environments.No setup needed - always on in the background (Dynamic configurable).
Advantages:
An economic wireless solution (both data & voice) for short distance.A global technology specification - an universal radio interface in 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band Stationary & mobile environments.No setup needed - always on in the background (Dynamic configurable).
Disadvantages:
The only real downsides are the data rate and security. Infrared can have data rates of up to 4 MBps, which provides very fast rates for data transfer, while Bluetooth only offers 1 MBps. The greater range and radio frequency (RF) of Bluetooth make it much more open to interception and attack. For this reason, security is a very key.
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