The Pros and Cons of Bluetooth Technology

In recent years, Bluetooth has emerged as a revolutionary technology for wireless communication between devices that need to 'talk' at short distances. As with any technology, there are advantages AND disadvantages to Bluetooth; we've put together a handy rundown of them here:

Advantages

• Bluetooth technology is accepted world wide, and has been implemented as a standard having been adopted by more than 2,000 manufacturers. You can use Bluetooth on laptops, mobile phones, music players, headsets, printers and a host of other products.
• Bluetooth technology is cheap to implement for the companies resulting in lower costs to the consumer. The technology itself is license free, and so does not cost a penny in data charges.
• Unlike infrared, Bluetooth isn't a line of sight technology (so is not affected by obstacles), and it comes with ranges of up to 100 metres (for class 1 devices).
• Bluetooth uses low powered 2.4 GHZ band for radio communication.
• Avoids interference from other wireless devices - Bluetooth uses channel hopping to avoid any external interference even from devices using the same bandwidth, which allows crystal clear communication and error free data transfers.
• Simple and easy to use: setting up Bluetooth connectivity is automatic; when two or more devices enter a range of up to 10 metres of each other the communication automatically begins between them. However, users still have the ability to keep their information private; in order to make a transfer, the user must give access by accepting or rejecting the request.
• Standard protocol - Bluetooth's standardised wireless guarantees a high level of compatibility among devices.
• Bluetooth as technology is being constantly revised and upgraded and is backward compatible. The newer versions provide for enhanced range, higher speed and other features.
• Bluetooth allows creation of a private network of maximum 7 devices within a range of up to 10 metres, which offers a perfect scenario for a home network. The network using Bluetooth is called PAN (Personal Area Network) or Piconet.
• Faster data and voice Sharing - you can share data and voice communications via Bluetooth with compatible devices connected to it.
• Wireless synchronisation - you can eliminate wires along with improving safety with Bluetooth. You do not need to worry about carrying connection cables whilst travelling with your laptop or other wireless devices.
• Low power consumption - Bluetooth uses very low power (thus reducing battery consumption) as the range of Bluetooth communication is usually only 10 metres.

Disadvantages

• Whilst infrared technology has inherent security due to its line of sight; the greater range and radio frequency (RF) of Bluetooth make it much more open to interception and attack. Therefore, security is a major key aspect to the Bluetooth specification.
• Battery use - although Bluetooth has a low power consumption, using this technology will use up more battery power if left on; a concern in devices such as mobile phones.
• Infrared technology can have data rates of about 4 MBps, which delivers very fast rates for data transfer, whilst Bluetooth only has up to 2.1 MBps.
• When using Bluetooth Internet, the connection can sometimes run very slow.