by Anna Filatova
06/14/2002 | 04:51 PM
Not so long ago the version 1.1 of Bluetooth technology specification was accepted as a basis for PAN organization. These are the networks, which are automatically configured around the user (within 10 meters) and set up the connection and data exchange between different devices, such as PDA, telephones, digital cameras, printers, and other peripherals.
You should know that according to the today’s specification the bandwidth of a Bluetooth channel working in asynchronous mode doesn’t exceed 720Kbit/sec, while in synchronous mode it is even smaller: around 400Kbit/sec. This relatively small traffic can appear quite puzzling for the today’s users of computing networks, which are used to speeds around 100Mbit/sec. However, you shouldn’t forget that the official Bluetooth standard is only 4 years old, and it has all life ahead. And according to the latest info from the Bluetooth congress in Amsterdam, there tendency towards bandwidth improvement is evident now and can be noticed even with a naked eye, so to speak. <%BANNER[article]%>
Some completely new secret info about the new Bluetooth specs have been recently revealed by the Ericsson Technology Licensing engineers, which were the ones to start working on a highly original Bluetooth project some time ago. They claim that Bluetooth SIG group is now working very actively on two versions of this standard in parallel: high-speed Bluetooth 2.0 and medium-speed Bluetooth 1.2. The first one should provide 4, 8 and 12Mbit/sec data transfer rates, while the latter – 2-3Mbit/sec. They stressed that the new Bluetooth versions will never replace the current one, but will simply enrich it by adding new features to the basic standard. Bluetooth market is now growing up very rapidly and the guys are smart enough not to change anything at this stage, as the whole thing may get out of control.
Even Bluetooth SIG is not in a hurry to introduce Bluetooth 2.0. They expect it to finally happen in 2004 at the earliest. Although they do not prohibit the companies within this SIG to develop and manufacture new chipsets. The same Ericsson, for instance, also has working Bluetooth 2.0 prototypes and is ready to start production in 2003. They also expect the new Bluetooth 2.0 chips to cost only 20% more than the today’s ones.
Besides the higher data transfer rate, Bluetooth 2.0 will boast another improvements, will be able to work in non-switching narrow-band channel (the current Bluetooth devices work in a spasmodically switching 2.4GHz frequency network). It will also feature supervisor mode responsible for network functions assignment (the current data exchange is based on master/slave technology, so that the whole thing crashes inevitably once the master fails). They also intend to increase the Bluetooth working distance so that it could be over 10 meters (though this will lead to the doubling of the power consumption) and to introduce distributed MAC protocol.