Stacking up high-speed Bluetooth against Certified Wireless USB

The emergence of Certified Wireless USB and high-speed Bluetooth technology, both using the same WiMedia UWB radio, has led many to assume that one technology will dominate across all types of devices and usage scenarios, much as earlier wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi and even today's Bluetooth wireless technology, had once been hyped as the single solution for all wireless needs.

Bluetooth technology defied the original "one-size-fits-all" hype—and the pessimism that followed—by gaining traction in the market for which it was originally designed. Namely, mobile phones and the devices that connect to mobile phones.

Wi-Fi, too, established its own dominance in the market for which it was optimized: wireless local area networking between PCs and access points. While the marketplace did not satisfy observers' lust for decisive victory between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies, it did sort out which technology is superior for each application.

Similarly, high-speed Bluetooth technology and Certified Wireless USB work best in different applications, and the marketplace will once again decide where each technology will land based on these technologies' core strengths.

Figure 1 shows the combined Bluetooth Certified Wireless USB protocol stack.

Click here for Figure 1
Figure 1: Combined Bluetooth Certified Wireless USB protocol stack..

Bluetooth: Optimized for the mobile environment
Bluetooth technology has firmly established itself as the short-range wireless technology of choice for mobile devices and personal area networks. Its dominance in the mobile market is set to continue.

Led by strong penetration into mobile phones, over 600 million Bluetooth enabled devices were shipped in 2006, creating an installed base of more than a billion Bluetooth units. Growth in shipments is widely predicted to continue for years to come, and by the end of the decade, manufacturers will likely be shipping more than two billion Bluetooth enabled devices every year.

With data rates of up to three megabits per second, the Bluetooth radio has proven more than adequate for applications like streaming audio and voice, image and text file transfer, printing, and input from human interface devices.

Bluetooth technology has established the model for quick and easy setup of ad-hoc personal area networks between PCs, mobile phones, headsets, cars, cameras, printers, and other portable devices.

Crucial to Bluetooth technology's success in mobile devices has been the work put into the technology's profiles, defining usage scenarios as diverse as stereo music streaming, home-patient monitoring, and dial-up networking.

The Bluetooth profiles enable a driverless model where manufacturers need only incorporate the necessary profiles into their devices to be assured of compatibility and interoperability with companion devices from any manufacturer.

This "forward compatibility" means that today's products are compatible with tomorrow's accessories, with no driver installation or updates required. The Bluetooth wireless solution is perfect for "closed boxes" such as media players, embedded automotive electronics, and many mobile phones.

Mobile phones have already taken over the role of camera, address book, and personal organizer, with digital cameras, email, and Internet browsing capabilities standard features in today's high-end phones. Handsets continue to acquire functions once reserved for dedicated portable devices, and music-capable mobile phones are forecast to outsell dedicated MP3 players within several years.