A Helpful Bluetooth Technology Tutorial

This Bluetooth technology tutorial is useful for those seeking to understand how it works, the buzzwords and current applications.

Bluetooth Capabilities
Bluetooth technology utilizes a range of radio frequencies in the 2.4 Ghz range to enable electronic devices to communicate with each other. Using a low-powered radio signal, Bluetooth technology allows the devices to access each other and communicate without the need for cables and wires. Devices with Bluetooth technology can recognize each other and send data back and forth within about a 30-foot range. Encryption layers allow secure data transmission as well.

Bluetooth Buzzwords
The language surrounding Bluetooth technology is unique, and knowing these terms can go a long way in helping you understand how Bluetooth works and what you need to use it at home.

• USB Bluetooth dongle: A plug-in device that lets computers communicate with other Bluetooth-enabled devices. If your computer isn't Bluetooth-compatible, plugging a dongle into any USB port will allow it to work with other Bluetooth equipment.
• Discovery: A mode where a Bluetooth device looks for other signals and identifies them.
• Discoverable device: An electronic device that is compatible and within the 30-foot range of a searching Bluetooth device.
• Encrypt: To encode information so that unauthorized users can't accessing it. Bluetooth accomplishes this through frequency hopping.
• Frequency hopping: The ability of a Bluetooth device to jump to different frequencies within a 79-frequency range at a rate of 1,600 hops per second. Although the hopping appears random, it actually follows a pattern that is known only to the two Bluetooth devices that are synced with each other.
• Idle mode: When a Bluetooth device is not communicating with any other devices.
• Pairing: Setting up two Bluetooth devices to communicate with each other. The devices use radio signals to connect to each other, to lock in and to verify the signals.
• Piconet: A network of Bluetooth devices that are connecting and communicating. The maximum number that can be established in a piconet is eight.

Bluetooth Capabilities
Since Bluetooth can replace wires and cables easily, it increases the range, mobility and convenience of electronic devices that were once tethered together. A Bluetooth headset and a Bluetooth cell phone can work together for hands-free communication by sending the voice from the headset to the phone. A computer can connect to the Internet via a nearby cell phone. A mouse can work with a computer without a cable. GPS users can access real-time satellite maps from a computer and a small business with three computers can send data to a wireless printer without cords and cables snaking across the floor.