Bluetooth Demystified
| 2000-09-08 00:00:00 | | 0 | Mobile Computing
Wireless communication slowly is becoming reality. In a wireless world, a printer is installed automatically after it is turned on; keyboard and mouse cables no longer become hopelessly tangled; Palm Pilots and mobile telephones automatically synchronize and communicate. Providing this sort of seamless, wireless communication--at a low cost--is the goal of Bluetooth technology.
Devices that support Bluetooth automatically communicate with one another when they come within a 30-foot range of each other. If devices are compatible and properly authenticated, they start communicating, up to a maximum bandwidth of 1 Mbps. Although Bluetooth has a relatively short range and limited bandwidth, it requires very little power and is theoretically inexpensive. This makes it the ideal technology for portable devices that run on batteries, as well as devices that don't require massive bandwidth.
Bluetooth Demystified is a solid overview of Bluetooth technology for data-communication professionals who want to learn more about this new wireless specification. In many ways, it mirrors the official and more technical Bluetooth 1.0 specification (available online). For those who are familiar with the official specification, many of the diagrams will be familiar, and much of the basic information is the same. This book does not provide explicit information for programmers who are looking to implement Bluetooth support; but, if you want an accessible introduction to Bluetooth technology, this does the job.
Structured to provide an increasingly technical overview of Bluetooth, the book begins with a general overview of wireless technology and provides the motivation for Bluetooth. This creates a solid foundation for the following chapters, which give technical descriptions of the various Bluetooth communication protocols. Chapters on security and proposed usage models flesh out this new wireless communication specification.
New technology platforms always require a critical mass before they become a broadly accepted standard, and Bluetooth is no exception. Success for this technology is not guaranteed, even though an impressive list of companies have promised to implement Bluetooth in their products. Whether Bluetooth is the next Microsoft Bob or the next Palm Pilot remains to be seen. --Pete Ostenson
User review
Should Be Called `Bluetooth Mystified`
This book has absolutley no practical value. I purchased it in order to answer some very simple questions about the technology, none of which were answered. Instead, the book strays off into a thorough description of WAP and other tangentially related topics.
All I want to know is the following: Do current Bluetooth enabled devices use the devices TCP/IP stack, or does Bluetooth depend on some other non-standard protocol? Answers anyone?
User review
No blue tooth to demystify
The book covers extraneous information that is not `relevant` to the Bluetooth standard. For example, it has a one-pager on Jini and the last line was `At this writing, Jini's future is in doubt`. As a Java developer, I may not necessariy agree, but the book also fail to mention Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) if the author really wants to be impartial and covers the whole gamut of lookup and discovery technologies.
There were also mispelled commercial products (page 7) of Cisco's Aeronet (should be Aironet), but the accompanying digital photos clearly showed Aironet. This is one of the examples where both the author and McGraw-Hill's book editor failed their proofreading and/or research tasks.
The Bluetooth protocol descriptions came pretty much straight out of the Bluetooth specifications, without any comments or analyses. This indicates that that author, in this reviewer's opinion, has limited understanding on how or why the Bluetooth teams arrived at certain technical decisions. The last chapter on Global Scheme of 3G Wireless has little to do with Bluetooth.
I'm rather disappointed with the book in general since it contains information that can be downloaded directly from the Bluetooth Web site (for free). Rather than trying to rush out the `first` Bluetooth book, both the author and publisher should focus on delivering quality content rather than another door stop. Save your $US49.95 for another book.
Normally, this reviewer does not write such a strong opinion unless the book is extremely bad or good. Unfortunately, I am mystified on why this book was published at all.
User review
table 1.4
table 1.4 page 23: Performance Characteristics of Bluetooth Products
item: Range Up to 30 feet(???3 meters???) -> 9,144,,. meters
User review
Helpful Roadmap To Bluetooth Specifications
This is an extremely well written and organized book. It provides guidance for anyone who wishes to understand Bluetooth communication from the development or business perspectives and delivers a great deal of clarity in showing how the protocol is actually designed to work. The authorial insight throughout proved very helpful in navigating the Bluetooth specifications.
User review
Bluetooth without pain
This is the only book on Bluetooth I've actually been able to read. As in his excellent Telecommunications Encyclopedia Nathan really takes the time to explicate and explain concepts, not simply list them, as if you already knew most of what he's discussing. Page through the book: nearly every other page has a useful table or figure helping to illuminate the writing. The description of BT protocol architecture is the best I've ever seen. If you're a fan of Nathan's encyclopedias, or someone needing to learn (painlessly) the basics of Bluetooth, check this out.
