Bluetooth
Bluetooth is the solution to short-range wireless requirements. This low-cost radio solution provides links between mobile computers, mobile phones, other portable handheld devices, and connectivity to the Internet. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is a group of companies that include 3Com, Agere, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Toshiba, and more than 2,000 others who strive to drive development of the technology and make marketable products using Bluetooth technology and specifications.
Intel, Nokia, Ericcson, Toshiba, and IBM founded Bluetooth in May 1998. It started out as a way to create a wireless technology that would enable data transfer between mobile devices such as cell phones, portable digital assistants (PDAs), and cars. Bluetooth uses common, unlicensed frequencies of radio spectrum and operates in the 2.4GHz range, providing short-range (10cm to 10m) communication between devices.
Bluetooth might be added to different technologies such as these:
Mobile phones
Digital cordless phones
Notebook and desktop PCs
Handheld PCs
Digital still cameras
Output equipment
Automotive
Home networking
Bluetooth has not cornered the wireless market, and it won't with the rise in popularity of the 802.11 wireless standard. This standard has become the de facto standard based on business usage and increased home usage of wireless networks. Bluetooth's place is now in the small mobile devices that need to share information over small distances.
Large companies such as Microsoft are incorporating Bluetooth in products that do not need to compete with the wireless standard of 802.11. Although the 802.11 standard allows connections of wireless devices over greater distances, Bluetooth was designed from the ground up for low-power wireless devices and for mobile devices that do not need the wireless technologies available for PCs and Internet connections. Microsoft has built-in support for Bluetooth in the Pocket PC. Siemens and Socket Communications are both creating Bluetooth products around the software built into Windows CE. TDK Systems announced a Bluetooth-enabled device for the Palm m500 series of handhelds that will allow users to access e-mail or the Internet. ICE International in Norway has made a device based on Bluetooth technology that can automatically turn off other people's cell phones. Sony and Ericsson have a joint venture to build wireless connectivity to an earpiece and the cell phone based on Bluetooth technology. Although Bluetooth has not taken over the wireless world, it has found a niche.
One company in the UK, Netario, has already launched a Bluetooth network in Manchester. This public-access Bluetooth wireless network offers users 400Kbps wireless Internet access. Netario plans for more such sites in the UK. Bluetooth can operate at a maximum throughput of 723 kilobits per second (Kbps), and various companies are planning rollouts in such places as airports, hotels, and conference centers. All the Internet connection sites in airports currently use wired networks for access.
In the U.S., the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, have prompted the Federal Communications Commission to consider requiring police and telecommunications carriers to be capable of locating cell phone callers inside large structures. Bluetooth technology can possibly be used for this function. This capability to locate people via cell phones worries many privacy advocates because it can be used for legitimate law enforcement purposes but also for malicious purposes.
The question of the security of Bluetooth communications has already been raised. The 802.11b wireless standard has already been proven vulnerable to hackers. Bluetooth security is not as well understood and has not faced serious hacker challenges yet. As Bluetooth becomes more popular and made available to the general public, we can expect successful hacker attacks to occur. No technology so far has been proven invulnerable to attack.