Bluetooth 3.0 arrives with promise of 8x speed increase

The next version of the Bluetooth short-range wireless protocol officially launched this week, promising an eightfold speed increase to boost the low power protocol into the same performance range as WiFi wireless networking, while allowing Bluetooth 3.0 devices to fall back to lower power mode when not actively transferring data.

Presenting at its annual All Hands Meeting in Tokyo this week, the Bluetooth SIG — the special interest group that oversees the development of Bluetooth standards and licensing — formally adopted Bluetooth Core Specification Version 3.0 High Speed (HS), or Bluetooth 3.0.

In addition to better power savings and unicast connectionless data, the new specification features the ability to use alternative radio antennas, including an 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) that will increase throughput of Bluetooth data transfers to approximately 24 Mbps, up from 3Mbps in the current 2.1 EDR version. The extra speed comes from using the much faster but less power efficient 802.11 radio available in devices that support both Bluetooth and WiFi wireless networking.

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Bluetooth 3.0 spec to have Wi-Fi speeds

The Bluetooth SIG today provided early details of the Bluetooth 3.0 spec ahead of a full formal launch. The new format should provide a jump in bandwidth that gives it speed roughly equivalent to common Wi-Fi or several times the 3Mbps speed of Bluetooth 2.0. Transfers will be quick enough to let songs arrive “within seconds,” according to the group. It will also serve as a unique way of establishing one-on-one Wi-Fi connnections: a hand-off mode will use Bluetooth to auto-discover other nearby devices and switch to a direct Wi-Fi link as long as both devices have Wi-Fi as an option.

Equally part of the spec is a new technique known as Enhanced Power Control that prevents a connnection from dropping when a device is suddenly put in an enclosure, such as a bag or a pocket.

More details of Bluetooth 3.0 should be made public on April 21st, when the SIG plans its formal introduction of the technology and identify early supporters of the short-range wireless standard. No plans have circulated outlining when 3.0 will arrive in shipping products and whether any existing Bluetooth devices will be upgradeable.

Notably, Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 will use Bluetooth to establish local network connections similar to what’s contained in the upcoming Bluetooth format, though it’s believed that Apple is using a custom approach and existing Bluetooth 2.1 hardware to achieve the effect.

source:phonescoop