Signature Q4 2008

Bluetooth Technology 501 | By David English | Illustration by Gary Neil | Q4 ’08 Bluetooth technology has succeeded, in large part, because it continually evolves to encompass new technologies. Current markets for Bluetooth enabled devices expand; new markets open for future products. Bluetooth high speed technology and Bluetooth low energy technology are two of the most promising technologies on the horizon. Wireless devices will soon communicate much faster than they now can, opening up the possibility of streaming video-rich content. And we’ll see new types of power-efﬁcient devices – some smaller than a watch – that can operate for years on a single battery. Because high speed data transfer and low energy consumption are central to the evolution of Bluetooth technology, multiple working groups are collaborating on their development. In this issue of SIGnature, we’ll take a look at the Core Speciﬁcation Working Group, which is adapting the Bluetooth core speciﬁcation to support high speed standards, such as 802.11 and ultrawideband (UWB), and the Automation Working Group, which is developing a sensor proﬁle for a wide range of Bluetooth low energy enabled devices. Rev Your Engines Faster Efﬁciency We continue our look at the Working Groups that drive the development of Bluetooth specifications and protocols. Here, we profile groups at the core of emerging high speed and low energy technologies, which promise to greatly expand how Bluetooth wireless devices can be used. These and other Working Groups are open to Promoter and Associate members. Experience More “Our No. 1 goal is to enable higher speed applications that will work in conjunction with everything else we do,” says Joel Linsky, co-chair of the Core Speciﬁcation Working Group and principal engineer at Qualcomm. “Because the 802.11 standard is in practically every laptop sold today and an increasing number of cell phones, it has a really large footprint in terms of what’s out there,” he explains. “It’s natural to try to start using it.” The Seattle release of the Bluetooth core speciﬁcation will include a core component to allow high speed radios, as well as a PAL (Protocol Adaptation Layer) that’s speciﬁc to 802.11. “As we come up with new PALs later – ultrawideband probably being the ﬁrst one after Seattle – then those can be added in, although the architecture itself is being set down in the Seattle release,” says Linsky. “We can add radios over time that meet different market needs or that might be an evolutionary step from wherever we happen to be today.” Why support UWB radios in addition to 802.11? “The 802.11 radios exist in a very crowded frequency band,” explains Linsky. “In the future, it would be possible to use other technologies such as ultra-wideband that would work in less crowded frequency bands.” Speed is just one metric that differentiates radios. “The ultra-wideband radio at full speed has a substantial energy-per-bit advantage over 802.11, even at low-duty cycles,” explains Joe Decuir, co-chair of the Core Speciﬁcation Working Group and standards architect at CSR. “On the other hand, ultra-wideband doesn’t have the market footprint that 802.11 has today. It also has a much shorter range that matches the Bluetooth radio.” Supporting 802.11 and other external standards doesn’t mean Bluetooth technology must support changes they adopt. “The Bluetooth SIG will evaluate the different external specs and decide whether or not to reference a later version and which features we’re going to allow in that version,” Linsky says. An example is 802.11n, which won’t be ofﬁcially ratiﬁed until after the Seattle core is released. Once 802.11n is ratiﬁed, the Bluetooth SIG will likely advance the speciﬁcations to permit 802.11n within the Bluetooth core speciﬁcation. 28 | SIGnature | Bluetooth.org http://www.Bluetooth.org

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