Definition of Bluetooth .
Why Bluetooth ?
How need arise of Bluetooth?
History.
What is SIG ?
What is Bluetooth?
What is it - a technology, a standard, an
initiative, or a product?
Bluetooth wireless technology is a de facto
standard, as well as a specification for small form factor, low-cost, short
range radio links between mobile PCs, mobile phones and other portable devices.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is an industry group consisting of leaders
in the telecommunications, computing, and networking industries that are
driving development of the technology and bringing it to market.
How did the need arise?
In phase with the IT boom, the
mobility among people has constantly grown and wireless technologies for voice
and data have evolved rapidly during the past years. Countless electronic
devices for home, personal and business use have been presented to the market
during recent years but no widespread technology to address the needs of
connecting personal devices in Personal Area Networks (PANs). The demand for a
system that could easily connect devices for transfer of data and voice over
short distances without cables grew stronger.
Bluetooth wireless technology
fills this important communication need, with its ability to communicate both
voice and data wirelessly, using a standard low-power, low-cost technology
which can be integrated in all devices to enable total mobility. The price will
be low and result in mass production. The more units around, the more benefits
for the customer.
Why Bluetooth ?
What will Bluetooth wireless technology deliver to end users?
It will enable
users to connect a wide range of computing and telecommunications devices
easily and simply, without the need to buy, carry, or connect cables. It
delivers opportunities for rapid ad hoc connections, and the possibility of
automatic, unconscious, connections between devices. It will virtually
eliminate the need to purchase additional or proprietary cabling to connect
individual devices. Because Bluetooth wireless technology can be used for a
variety of purposes, it will also potentially replace multiple cable
connections via a single radio link. It creates the possibility of using mobile
data in a different way, for different applications such as "Surfing on
the sofa", "The instant postcard", "Three in one
phone" and many others. It will allow them to think about what they are
working on, rather than how to make their technology work. The solution eliminates the annoying
cable and its limitations regarding flexibility (often specific for a brand or
pair of devices) and range. But, Bluetooth implies more than that. The
technique provides the means for connecting several units to each other such as
setting up small radio LANs between any types of Bluetooth devices. A number of
user scenarios are described. They highlight more possibilities that reach far
beyond just an elimination of the point-to-point cable.
History
By the way if,
you're wondering where the Bluetooth name originally came from , it is named
after a Danish Viking and King of Denmark
between 940 and 981 AD, Harald Blåtand (Bluetooth in
English), who lived in the latter part of the 10TH century. Harald Blåtand united and controlled
Denmark
and Norway
(hence the inspiration on the name : uniting devices through Bluetooth
The idea that resulted in the
Bluetooth wireless technology was born in 1994 when Ericsson Mobile
Communications decided to investigate the feasibility of a low-power, low-cost
radio interface between mobile phones and their accessories. The idea was that
a small radio built into both the cellular telephone and the laptop would
replace the cumbersome cable used today to connect the two devices.
A year later the engineering
work began and the true potential of the technology began to crystallize. But
beyond unleashing devices by replacing cables, the radio technology showed
possibilities to become a universal bridge to existing data networks, a
peripheral interface, and a mechanism to form small private ad hoc groupings of
connected devices away from fixed network infrastructures.
The requirements regarding price,
capacity and size were set so that the new technique would have the potential
to outdo all cable solutions between mobile devices. Initially a suitable radio
interface with a corresponding frequency range had to be specified. A number of
criteria for the concept were defined regarding size, capacity and global
uniformity. The radio unit should be so small and consume such low power that
it could be fitted into portable devices with their limitations. The concept
had to handle both speech and data and finally the technique had to work all
around the world. The study soon showed that a short-range radio link solution
was feasible.
When designers at Ericsson had
started to work on a transceiver chip, Ericsson soon realized that they needed
companions to develop the technique. The associates strove not only to improve
the technical solutions but also to get a solid and broad market support in the
business areas of PC hardware, portable computers and mobile phones. Fear for a
market situation with a multitude of non-standard cable solutions, where one
cable is designed specifically for one pair of devices, was one of the motives
that made competing companies join the project. Ericsson Mobile Communications,
Intel, IBM, Toshiba and Nokia Mobile Phones formed a Special Interest Group
(SIG) in 1998.
What is SIG?
In February 1998 the Special
Interest Group (SIG) was formed. Today the Bluetooth SIG includes promoter
companies 3Com, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia and
Toshiba, and thousands of Adopter/Associate member companies. By signing a zero cost agreement,
companies can join the SIG and qualify for a royalty-free license to build
products based on the Bluetooth technology.
This group represented the diverse
market support that was needed to generate good support for the new Bluetooth technology. In May of the same year,
the Bluetooth consortium announced itself globally. The assignment of the SIG
originally was to monitor the technical development of short-range radio and to
create an open global standard, thus preventing the technology from becoming
the property of a single company. This work resulted in the release of the
first Bluetooth Specification in July 1999.
The intention of the Bluetooth SIG is
to form a de facto standard for the air interface and the software that
controls it. The further development of the Specification
still is one of the main tasks for the SIG, other important ones being
interoperability requirements, frequency band harmonization and promotion of
the technology. The Bluetooth wireless technology was developed
by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, to define an industry-wide
specification for connecting personal and business mobile devices. More than
1,4000 companies are now members of the Special Interest Group, signifying the
industry’s unprecedented acceptance of the Bluetooth wireless technology.
To avoid different interpretations of
the Bluetooth standard regarding how a specific type of application should be
mapped to Bluetooth, the SIG has defined
number of user models and
protocol profiles. These are described in more detail in the section entitled
Bluetooth Usage Models and Profiles.The SIG also works with a Qualification
Process. This process defines criteria for bluetooth product qualification that
ensures that products that pass this process meet the Bluetooth specification.For more details.
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