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54 E L EC TR I C AL CONNEC T I ON
S PR I NG 20 1 6
DEVICESWITH BYTE
S
mart electronic devices have
made inroads into many
aspects of daily life and also the
industrial sphere.
Some of them gather data about
the surroundings and others help us
to control things or communicate.
To maximise convenience, they
usually employ some form of wireless
technology to transfer information.
Bluetooth has become a popular
form of smart wireless technology for
fast short-range data communication
between devices. And with the advent
of the Internet of Things (IoT), the
need for such a capability is about to
expand rapidly.
ORIGINS
Bluetooth was developed in 1994
by Dr Sven Mattisson when working
for the Swedish company Ericsson
Mobile Communications.
It was named after Harald Blåtand,
a Swedish king in the Middle Ages
who had the nickname Bluetooth. The
original specification was developed by
Dr Jaap Haartsen.
Ericsson has been in the
telecommunications business for more
than 100 years, supplying telephone
handsets, small private telephone
exchanges (known as PABXs) and large
telco exchanges and networks.
The company was preferred supplier
of telephone exchanges to Telstra and
its predecessors for many years.
With the advent of mobile phone
technology, Ericsson quickly became
an important player in the sector.
It produced not only mobile phone
networking equipment but also a large
range of mobile handsets.
The original aim of Bluetooth was
to provide a short-range wireless link
between mobile phones so as to avoid
the need for a cable connection when
transmitting data – such as provided
by slow and cumbersome RS-232 serial
cabling technology.
However, it was soon realised that
this technology could be used for
communication between all sorts of
devices that required connecting cables.
BLUETOOTH TECHNOLOGY
Ericsson set up a joint development
group with several manufacturers with
a view to creating an open Standard for
a short-range wireless communications
system operating in the 2.45GHz radio
frequency band.
This was known as the ISM band –
for industrial, scientific and medical
– and is also used by many other
low-power devices. These include
cordless phones, wireless local area
network (WiFi) devices, model control,
garage door openers, home detention
monitors, point-of-sale terminals and
even the domestic microwave oven.
Part of the conditions of using this
band is that devices must radiate low
power, typically about 1W or less,
depending on the type of equipment.
Such equipment is covered by an
LIPD class licence (low interference
potential device), and does not require
THE INTERNET OF THINGS
REPRESENTS A REVOLUTION IN
HOWWE MONITOR AND CONTROL
A BEWILDERING ARRAY OF
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT.
GEORGE
GEORGEVITS
EXPLAINS.
Bluetooth was named after Harald Blåtand, a Swedish king in the Middle Ages.
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING