The recent appearance of some “Wi-Fi” mobile phones on the market has many folks wondering “what could be”. With regards to Bluetooth vs WiFi phones are we seeing a potential collision of capabilities? Not so fast…don’t be blinded by the light.
OK, you may have seen a couple of mobile phones with Wi-Fi on the market lately… and it appears that the penetration of these mobile “Wi-Fi” phones is only going to increase with time. It also seems that what the current user can achieve with Bluetooth… may also be possible via Wi-Fi at some time in the not too distant future.
Below I’ve listed the primary use cases for Bluetooth and how Wi-Fi “may” offer a solution.
1. Wireless headset – Wi-Fi headsets take up a lot more current than Bluetooth, this doesn’t seem to be insurmountable in due time though.
2. Wireless data transfer – Already possible via Wi-Fi
3. Security – Bluetooth’s frequency-hopping transmissions ensure security and less interference, but this again is not an insurmountable hurdle for Wi-Fi
4. Mobile to PC Sync – Possible via Wi-Fi
If a manufacturer is paying $X per chip to put Wi-Fi in… they might as well work towards solving these problems and remove BT from phones.
However, in my honest opinion there’s more to the story if you really look under the hood.
So, I believe rather than competing, the two are coming together.
Bluetooth will probably always remain in the handset for two reasons. The first is that it enables low power headsets. Unlike Wi-Fi, Bluetooth enables synchronous voice transmission without the need for VoIP. It was one of the key requirements for the Bluetooth specification and means that headsets can be made that give a good talk time with small batteries. The overhead of VoIP processing for any standard that does not support native voice means that Wi-Fi is unlikely to ever take this market away. And despite the publicity of Wi-Fi in handsets, the only wireless connections that most people ever make is to a headset.
What will reinforce the continuation of Bluetooth in handsets is the new low power variant, also known as Wibree or Ultra Low Power Bluetooth. This is exciting the handset vendors because of its ability to connect the handset to a new range of accessories, such as watches, sports equipment and health sensors. This technology resides inside the same Bluetooth chip, so will add functionality to the handset for no additional cost.
The other important thing to realise about Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is their different topologies. Wi-Fi usually talks to access points, whereas Bluetooth devices talk to other Bluetooth devices in what is know as an ad-hoc connection. 802.11 – the standard behind Wi-Fi can in theory cope with ad-hoc connections, but it’s a feature that is poorly implemented and lacks interoperability. Much of the power of Bluetooth has been in building the higher level stacks that provide the ability to find other devices, connect to them securely and perform a range of data transfers. It’s taken Bluetooth the best part of ten years to get this aspect right. Wi-Fi hasn’t yet started on it.
That’s why there is now work going on to combine Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so that Bluetooth is used for this initial setup of the connection, and then Wi-Fi is switched on, under the control of Bluetooth, to perform a higher speed transfer. There are potential issues to this approach, as both use the same frequencies and if the two are being heavily used at the same time, there may be performance issues that are apparent to the user. To combat that, handset and equipment vendors are also working hard on a combination of UWB and Bluetooth. This provides better immunity to interference, higher data rates at short ranges and a much lower power consumption that can be achieved for a similar data rate using Wi-Fi.
The reality is that we will probably end up with three short range wireless standard in cellphones in the next few years – Bluetooth (including Ultra Low Power), Wi-Fi and UWB. In the near term it’s likely that Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will coalesce into a single chip, with UWB as an additional RF chip. If they’re all controlled by Bluetooth, the good news is that the user will only have to deal with one application interface.
By: Michael Lemm
Archive for December, 2009
Is Bluetooth On A Collision Course With Wi-Fi?
December 30th, 2009The benefits of networking
December 30th, 2009The benefits of networking (either wired or wireless) in homes are:
file sharing – Network file sharing between computers gives you more flexibity than using floppy drives or Zip drives. Internet connection sharing – Using a home network, multiple family members can access the Internet simultaneously without having to pay an ISP for multiple accounts. Sharing dial-up Internet connections works, too. multi-player games – Many popular home computer games support LAN mode where friends and family can play together, if they have their computers networked.
home entertainment – Newer home entertainment products such as digital video recorders (DVRs) and video game consoles now support either wired or wireless home networking. Although you can realize these same benefits with a wired home network, you should carefully consider building a wireless home network instead, for the following reasons:
Computer mobility. Wireless technology is clearly the future of networking.
T32 Tri Band Phone With WiFi – Probably the Smartest IPhone Clone in the CECT Line Up
December 26th, 2009
For a long time, the iPhone and other clones were called “smart phones” simply because they loaded everything but the kitchen sink into these tiny imports. Even the early knock offs included web browsing, texting, emailing, MP3 / MP4, Bluetooth, digital camera / web cam, and FM radio as well as e-book readers on many models.
However, even being fully loaded, few of these clones offered true smart phone features like Windows Mobile and WiFi. Finally, CECT has decided to see if consumers will be willing to pay a bit more for these extras with the release of the T32. (So far, the answer seems to be yes.) This article will discuss some of the more popular features of this new iPhone knock off.
I am not sure why the wait for this one was so long. I suppose the manufacturers were concerned about getting the price of these knock offs too high by adding too many features that not every one would want or could use, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
I am one who certainly thinks the 32 is worth the money and not overloaded. With the new trinity of windows mobile 6.0, built in WiFi, and GPS, the T32 is approaching the category of the productivity smart phones that allow you to read, draft, edit, and resend information away from your desk. This mobile truly allows you to do business anywhere at anytime, although it’s also popular with students. In addition to these extras, the 32 supports Java, which opens up a bunch of gaming and third party software possibilities.
This phone is called by a few different names like Daxian X999, Daxian T32, etc. It supports WAP browsing, as well as MMS and SMS messaging. It is updated with the A2DP version of Bluetooth and also includes outlook express. This Daxian 32 mobile has talk time of up to 300 minutes and a standby time of up to 150 hours. It can hold up to 8GB of memory (via T flash).
The T32 is tri band. It supports GSM networks on 900, 1800, and 1900MHz, which covers most carriers. It is typically not dual sim, but it’s probably the most expensive clone on the market right now, averaging in the high $200 to low $300 range, depending upon the memory that is included in it.
However, most believe that it is also the most complete and fully loaded iPhone clone to date, and considering you can chose your own carrier, many consumers still find it fairly priced as evidenced by its brisk sales.
By: Rae Edwards
