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ABSTRACT
This article summarizes the Bluetooth technology - a type of Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) with emphasis on the pivotal role of Bluetooth enabled devices in ICT. The areas of application of Bluetooth technology, its security, basic design and architecture, and likely future trends in its applications are also discussed with a view to highlighting its major significance. Bluetooth was compared with other wireless communications technologies specifically Infrared Data Association (IrDA) and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi®) showing their dissimilarities and, above all, the advantages of Bluetooth wireless protocol over the other wireless technologies which have made it a topic of discourse in ICT are discussed.
KEYWORDS: Bluetooth Protocol, Bluetooth Wireless Technology, PICONET, Bluejacking, ISM,
INTRODUCTION
Bluetooth takes its name from the 10th century Viking king, Harold Blatand or Harold Bluetooth in English, son of the first king of Denmark. He is said to have got the name from a penchant with blueberries. Harold Bluetooth is reputed to have been responsible for uniting the warring factions in parts of what is now Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Developers of the Bluetooth technology saw in this legend a parallel with what they aimed to do: cause convergence in the telecommunications, computing, automotive and network industries and so bestowed their project with the name Bluetooth (Vworld, 2005). Bluetooth is a standard developed by a group of electronic manufacturers - the Bluetooth Special Interest Group that allows any sort of electronic equipment to make its own connections without wire, cables or any direct action from a user.
The Bluetooth technology is a wireless protocol utilizing short range communications technology facilitating data transmission over short distances from fixed and mobile devices creating Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). WPANs are very small ad-hoc networks that cover only a personal work space, an office or a meeting room. "In contrast to Wi-Fi®, which is a robust Local Area Network technology, Bluetooth wireless technology is designed as a cable replacement technology"(Bhagwat, 2001).
The intent behind the development of Bluetooth was the creation of a single digital wireless protocol, capable of connecting multiple devices and overcoming problems arising from synchronization of these devices. Bluetooth uses a radio technology called frequency hoping spread spectrum. It chops up data being sent and transmits chunk of it...