Bluetooth

A Vision of the Future or a Wire Replacement Failure by James Pate Williams, Jr.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 1

Preliminary Definition Protocol

According to the Oxford American Dictionaries the noun protocol is defined in our area of interest Computing a set of rules governing the exchange or transmission of data electronically between devices.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

(c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved

What Is Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is a set of wireless protocols for transferring digital data from one Bluetooth enabled device to another Bluetooth enabled device Due to its relatively short range and low bandwidth, it is not envisioned to be a wireless networking protocol in the sense of IEEE 802.11b or 802.11g (WI-FI) which can be used to form stable local area networks (LANs)
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 3

Applications of Bluetooth (1)

Bluetooth can replace wires in many systems such as Bluetooth enabled keyboards and mice A Bluetooth enabled cell phone can act as a modem for the transfer of data from a computer such as a laptop or desktop onto a network such as the Internet
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 4

Applications of Bluetooth (2)

Bluetooth can be used as a remote control protocol to replace the standard IR remote controls of televisions, radios, stereos, etc. Bluetooth embedded devices in household appliances could in theory form ad hoc networks to perform useful tasks
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 5

Applications of Bluetooth (3)

Exchange of calendar dates for scheduling and virtual business cards between Bluetooth enabled cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and/or computers Many more applications yet to be realized or envisioned
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 6

Advantages of Bluetooth
Relatively inexpensive transceivers Relatively low power required to transmit data Short range End-to-end encryption (128-bit) Does not have the line of sight problems associated with the competing infrared (IR) wireless data transferring protocols

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

(c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved

Disadvantages of Bluetooth
The range is limited compared to WI-FI Bluetooth ad hoc networks generally lack scalability Bluetooth has limited bandwidth

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

(c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved

Typical Modern Transfer Data Rates (1)

USB 2.0 1.5 to 12 Mbps USB 2.0 Hi-Speed 480 Mbps FireWire IEEE 1394a 400 Mbps FireWire IEEE 1394b 800 Mbps Common analog modem 56 Kbps MIDI 31.25 Kbps
(c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 9

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Typical Modern Transfer Data Rates (2)

Ethernet 10, 100, 1000 Mbps WI-FI IEEE 802.11g 54 Mbps Bluetooth 1.1 close range 1000 Kbps ADSL 1.5 Mbps down 512 Kbps up Cable 4 Mbps down 384 Kbps up IrDA 115.2 Kbps
(c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 10

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

IrDA Bluetooths True Competitor (?)

IrDA is an infrared based digital communication protocol that is wireless and has limited bandwidth Since IrDA uses IR, it has a line-of-sight limitation IR transmission is used in many common remote control devices
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 11

The Vision Part One - The Smart Home (1)

In theory, houses could be made to act intelligently by embedding many small computers at strategic locations within a residence These small brains would communicate with one another and interoperate to carry out tasks to regulate the home environment
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 12

The Vision Part One - The Smart Home (2)

The alarm clock in the envisioned house could communicate with the coffee maker to start brewing coffee as soon as the owner of the home became awake The sensors in the house could turn on and off lights in rooms automatically as the residents of the home enter and leave rooms

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

(c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved

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The Vision Part One - The Smart Home (3)

The climate of the house could be regulated by a artificial neural network based system that would learn the temperature settings required to minimize costs while maximizing comfort The house would have many Bluetooth temperature sensors that communicate with the central workstation of the domicile
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 14

The Vision Part Two - The Intelligent Automobile (1)

For decades modern aircraft have advanced avionics systems which actuate the control surfaces of planes such as ailerons, elevators, and rudders These small embedded systems have been designed to cooperate and interact
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 15

The Vision Part Two - The Intelligent Automobile (2)

Automobile designers have also used embedded computers to regulate many systems of car such as carburetor, fuel injection system, brakes, etc. These designers are thinking about reducing the wiring requirements by introducing a wireless protocol such as Bluetooth
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 16

The Vision Part Three - The Smart Battlefield

Due to its short range, Bluetooth could be used in a tactical capacity for sensors and other battlefield applications If the Bluetooth chip sets could be reduced enough in size then they could be used to create dust mote sensors
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 17

Conclusions
The Bluetooth vision of smart milieus is in my humble opinion worthy of pursuing or at least further research and marketplace exploration Wire replacement protocols make sense in many environments where wire snarls present hazards
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (c) 2007 James Pate Williams, Jr. All Rights Reserved 18