Developing Practical Wireless Applications

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11

Bluetooth: A Cable Replacement

Technology

The thought of dipping into the various Bluetooth-specific specifications is something

which shouldn’t be done lightheartedly. An engineer suitably equipped with a jug of

coffee and other caffeine-based products should only then, but not necessarily advis-

ably, embark upon the thousand or so pages. The page count doesn’t stop there either;

with the new release of the Specification of the Bluetooth System and the many

adopted profiles, we will surely see an emerging wealth of detailed information ready

to be ingested by the most fearless. The release of the Specification of the Bluetooth

System: Core v2.0, plus Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) offers backward compatibility

with v1.2 and the ability to support a host of other profile enhancements. And, of

course, we already have a series of adopted profiles that have been prepared and incor-

porated into a formal release of the Specification of the Bluetooth System: Profiles. With

the recent marriage of Bluetooth and Ultra-wideband (UWB) we may even witness a

new evolution to the specification suite; perhaps we can hear the pounding keys of a

keyboard thrashing out the Specification of the Bluetooth System: Core v3.0 with an

accompanied wealth of new profiles complementing the array of new Bluetooth/

UWB-enabled applications. This continued growth is evidence of a technology that

has taken up permanent residence in communication-enabled products, albeit those

predominantly targeted towards the cellular market (phone and headset). The

plethora of Bluetooth-orientated product flyers occupies much of the window space

in our local high streets, tempting us to abandon our cables for simpler useability. With

its growth predicted to overtake that of WiFi, Bluetooth technology demonstrates that

it has an undying ambition to govern our everyday use of technology (some reports

have already witnessed the growth of Bluetooth exceeding that of WiFi; it really comes

down to whom you believe, as Bluetooth has only captured a niche market). In

Chapter 13, WiFi: Enabling True Ubiquitous Connectivity, we adopt a more realistic

perspective about the success and enormous market penetration of WiFi where we