How does Bluetooth Work?

Bluetooth is everywhere, connecting your gadgets, allowing them to conspire. It’s purpose isn’t to start the robot apocalypse, it’s supposed to allow your phone, tablet and TV talk to your gadgets wirelessly. Tap a phone against your speaker and as if by magic, the rumba rhythms start to play. Clever. And that’s all you need to know. But given that knowledge is power, power is an aphrodisiac and we’d all like sectarian violence to end, here’s some more info on the technical side of wireless wizardry.

Bluetooth In Simple Terms

Bluetooth uses radio waves to transfer data from one device to another. Provided both the devices have a Bluetooth chip and the correct software to read the data being sent. The aerial is tiny, and built on to the device itself, it means the range is only 10m but Bluetooth can be added to almost anything without increasing its size.

Why Choose Bluetooth Headphones

We love Bluetooth headphones, they are so much better than there wired cousins. Cables just seem to get in the way, but you may need a reason to justify it to your “accountant”, here’s a few:

  • Mowing the lawn without getting your cables caught in the mower
  • Watching TV without being tied to the screen
  • Driving without being stopped for talking on your phone
  • Working out whilst leaving your MP3 player in your bag

Why Choose Bluetooth Speakers

Speakers without wires, our joint favourite cordless companion, and just in case you need a reason for breaking out the bank card, here’s some of our favourite:

  • Replacing a broken car stereo in seconds flat
  • Conference calling without huddling round your galaxy
  • Lounging on the sofa whilst controlling your tunes
  • Pranks, hide the speaker, queue the loud scream…

Those last two might not get it past her, but…

 

The Advanced Lesson

Just like any other wireless technology, Bluetooth works with frequencies. It operates at the ISM (industrial, scientific and medical) band. The frequency used by Bluetooth is between 0.4 to 2.485 GHz. Bluetooth uses a spread spectrum, and it also uses a frequency hopping mechanism to send and receive data. It works on 1600 hops/sec. Bluetooth uses Gaussian frequency modulation and gives the baud rate of 1 MB per second.

With the frequency hopping technique, the data is transmitted from one device to another in the form of packets. The sender and receiver transmit data at one frequency and hop onto another frequency to send and receive the next piece of data (packet).

Each Bluetooth device (chip) has an address and a clock rate. The devices have a unique 48-bit address, and this address is assigned to the device at the time of manufacture. This address cannot be modified. The Bluetooth works on a 28-bit clock that ticks every 312.5 microseconds. Bluetooth devices are connected only when they have each other’s address and clock rate.

As mentioned before, the network formed by Bluetooth devices is called the piconet. In the piconet, there is one master and all other devices are slaves. The master is the device which creates the network and sends the data to the other devices in the network (or to the slaves).

Bluetooth devices operate at different levels, and these levels have different maximum range. The Class 1 Bluetooth devices have a range of 100 meters, Class 2 Bluetooth devices can transmit data at a distance of 50 meters, and Class 3 has a range of 10 meters.

The Bluetooth technology has evolved in the past few years. There are various algorithms and techniques which are used to compress the data while transferring over Bluetooth. These algorithms allow the Bluetooth technology to operate not only faster but with better quality as well.

For those Still Reading

There should really be an outro. Thank you for your dedication to knowledge squirrels, your Bluetooth badges are in the hypothetical post.

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