Bluetooth is a wireless technology
that enables any electrical device to wirelessly communicate
in the 2.5 GHz ISM (license free) frequency band. It
allows devices such as mobile phones, headsets, PDA's
and portable computers to communicate and send data
to each other without the need for wires or cables to
link to devices together. It has been specifically designed
as a low cost, low power, radio technology, which is
particularly suited to the short range Personal Area
Network (PAN) application
Accessibility
Operates in the 2.4GHz frequency
band without a license for wireless communication.
It is capable of operating with real-time data transfer
up to 100m. Close proximity is not required as with
infrared data (IrDA) communication devices as Bluetooth
doesn't suffer from interference from obstacles such
as walls. It supports both point-to-point wireless
connections without cables between mobile phones and
personal computers, as well as point-to-multipoint
connections to enable ad hoc local wireless networks.
Devices such as: Mobile PCs, cell phones, PDAs, printers,
and other devices are able to provide cable-free links
for applications like data synch, Internet access,
and wireless printing.
Applications
Bluetooth is set to be well
integrated with WAN (3G, GSM) and LAN (802.11b, 802.11a,
HiperLan/2) technologies with many of the providers
of both seeing Bluetooth as highly complementary.
It has widespread support at application platform
level (operating systems, Java and Wap). Microsoft
has created native support in the Microsoft® Windows®
operating system for Bluetooth wireless technology.
This support was developed from the ground up and
is not based on existing software from other companies.
Support for Bluetooth wireless technology is available
only for Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later
versions.
Current
Limitations
Lack of standards is inhibiting
applications for Bluetooth but with Microsoft now
releasing it within Windows more widespread use is
now likely.
Security is provided in three
ways: through pseudo-random frequency band hops, authentication,
and encryption. Frequency band hops make it difficult
for anyone to eavesdrop. Authentication allows a user
to control connectivity to only devices specified. Encryption
uses secret key lengths of 1, 40, and 64 bits. The quality
of security is excellent for most applications. However,
it is not the highest level available, and for those
users who require it, the suggestion is to investigate
separate network transfer protocols and security software.
For further
information Bluetooth tokens for strong user authentication
then please contact our office.
