Bluetooth cuts the cord

Competing wireless standards

Today, a number of wireless standards exist in the marketplace: 802.11b, HomeRF, and infrared. Each has its own niche, although 802.11b and Bluetooth boast the most compelling advantages. Bluetooth is designed for low-power portable devices, is affordable and easy to use, and doesn't require line of sight for the devices to communicate like infrared (IR) does. Because Bluetooth is based on radio-wave technology, devices can communicate through objects such as walls, clothing, and briefcases.

Although 802.11b offers faster speeds (11mbps in the 2.4GHz radio band) than Bluetooth, it is significantly more expensive and power-hungry. Industry pundits predict that the two standards will coexist peacefully in the enterprise, and some chipmakers are exploring the possibility of creating chipsets that integrate both standards.

Another wireless standard that is still around is IrDA (Infrared Data Association) IR. Infrared is fairly reliable and doesn't cost very much to build into a device, but it is a line-of-sight technology. The standard, which was developed many years ago, stumbled due to a lack of drivers and limited usability.

Compared to IR, RF standards such as Bluetooth's are easier to use and more reliable and can handle more data. Infrared is almost always a one-to-one technology. With IR, you can send data from a desktop computer to a laptop computer, for example, but not to multiple devices simultaneously. With a Bluetooth-enabled handheld, for example, you could transmit a presentation to every person in the conference room without having to connect with everyone individually.

HomeRF, as its name suggests, is aimed at those in households who do multimedia applications such as streaming audio and video. HomeRF is a combination of two standards (DEC and 802.11), which makes it more expensive than Bluetooth although slightly faster at 1.6mbps. Although the standard may remain in the consumer marketplace, there is little hope that it will meet the needs of enterprise users.

Contents

1.  Intro      2.  Applications and products      3.  Competing wireless standards      4.  The interoperability question

• Related stories

• Alerts

Be the first to comment on this article!

• Just In

• Most Popular

• Most Discussed

Reader Services

Popular Topics

Essentials