Sweet Tooth for the Bluetooth^®:
What It Is and Why It’s So Tasty

by Jay Schroyer

What do a Danish king and short-range radio signals have in common? The answer is surprisingly simple: integration. Named after Harald Bluetooth, a Danish king who united Denmark and Norway, Bluetooth technology has the ability to connect your car, home computer, laptop, home phone, cell phone, PDA, headphones, keyboards, mice, and just about any other Bluetooth enabled electronic device you can think of into one safe, happy, wireless network of convenience.

Gone are the days of snarled cables stuffed behind your desk, criss-crossing the floor like dangerous tripwires. Gone, too, are the chains that bind you to your desk and your computer. Now you can sit outside in the yard, accessing the internet from your laptop, retrieving your messages from the answering machine inside while you rock out to your favorite tunes in private via your Bluetooth integrated headphones.

How is such a simple feature able to offer so much integrated flexibility and still remain secure?

Technology
For all intents and purposes, Bluetooth is nothing more than a radio frequency that uses very minimal power to broadcast a signal to other compatible devices to set up a network of communication. Because of its use of minimal power, it makes it ideal in battery-dependent devices (like cell phones), but this same miserly use of power also restricts the range of these radio waves.

The easiest way to understand Bluetooth is to compare it to an item that I’m sure you’ve used uncountable times: a cordless phone. The cordless phone uses high-frequency radio waves to keep you connected to the phone base which is in turn connected to the phone jack. As convenient as the cordless phone is, it does have its limitations. Depending on the strength of the frequency (generally 2.4 GHZ), you may not be able to take your conversation outside to the porch. Since Bluetooth uses the same technology (and radio frequency), it too has distance limitations.

Bluetooth devices can be categorized into two classes. A class one Bluetooth device is a lot more powerful and provides up to a 320 foot operating radius. Chances are pretty good you won’t find this class in your run-of-the-mill cell phone and if you do, you’ll pay for it.

Common Bluetooth enabled devices fall into class two which features a range of about 30 feet. For everyday use, 30 feet should be more than enough space. The data transfer rate is around 720-723 kb/second which isn’t blisteringly fast, but when you’re on the go, it’s certainly better than no connection at all.

But an important feature of Bluetooth is that unlike your television remote, its range cannot be obscured by any sort of obstruction: walls, furniture, even people. Your TV remote requires a direct line of sight to send its signal to the television, but Bluetooth radio signals will penetrate just about any surface.

You can connect up to eight devices all at once using Bluetooth without any sort of disruptions. But how does Bluetooth not get all of these radio signals mixed up? When Bluetooth sends out a signal to a compatible device, it sets up a path of communication (a piconet or personal area network) with this device that is comprised of many individual paths (frequencies). By “leaping” from path to path many times per second, Bluetooth is able to avoid running into itself when connecting multiple devices and thus keeping their back and forth transfer of data exclusive and uninterrupted. These piconets, which literally means one-trillionth of a network, can include up to eight devices with one acting as a sort of administrator and the other devices as users.

Applications
Bluetooth has great potential if you’re the type of person that keeps valuable information on multiple devices. For example, if you travel a lot and keep your laptop with you all the time, you may want to synch all of your files with your desktop computer when you return to the office. Now you don’t have to search for a cable to connect the two or a port to connect them with. Simply turn the devices on, keep them within 30 feet of each other, and let the machines talk.

Are you constantly updating your cell phone information? You can also synch this up with your laptop and desktop so that you have the most up-to-date contact information for clients, family, and friends. Another great selling point of Bluetooth is that you don’t have to learn any extra computer skill to take advantage of it.

The Bluetooth enabled device does all of the hard work for you by seeking out connections with your other devices. If you have an older computer or laptop and Bluetooth is not already installed, you can always buy an upgrade card that you can add to your hardware to make that device compatible. You can also find Bluetooth enabled keyboards, mice, joysticks, hands-free earphones for your cell, and even printers to make your home office completely wireless without excessive cost or installation.

Security
Since these radio waves are just floating around in the air (albeit, not too far from you), it’s conceivable that anyone nearby could intercept them. Have you ever started up your laptop only to find that your computer has hopped onto your neighbor’s wireless internet connection?

The first step in securing your Bluetooth connections is to identify your trusted devices. This is a list of connecting devices that you have verified and trust connecting within your piconet. Bluetooth will automatically connect these devices without verifying with you first. You can also set your Bluetooth devices to be non-discoverable meaning that they are now undiscoverable to other Bluetooth devices who will try to reach out and make a connection.

Of course, the same tips for protection against identity theft still apply as with any form of electronic information exchanges. You should always use common sense when purchasing items online or accessing any sort of confidential information via email. Don’t open email attachments from people you don’t know and try to keep current on the latest schemes plaguing the internet, email, and cell phones. A few minutes of education could save you a lot of hassle later on.

Many people have already taken advantage of wireless networking in their homes, but for many, installation and operation requires a lengthy tutorial and a heaping helping of frustration. Although Bluetooth’s instant compatibility and installation-free operation would appear to make it an obvious replacement for standard wireless, merchandisers of wireless products need not worry.

Bluetooth just can’t offer the bandwidth (and consequently, the speed) to keep up with today’s wireless connections. But for integrating all of your life’s most important peripherals, Bluetooth technology can be a convenient and time saving feature.

Bluetooth is a trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc., registered in the U.S. and/or other countries.

About the Author:
Jay Schroyer has worked in the client and customer service end of business for over five years in retail, advertising, and printing. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English writing and communication.

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