In case you missed this, the Bluetooth SIG has announced that Bluetooth protocols will run on 802.11n connections. This is a big step forward for Bluetooth, and I’m pleased to see it. I’ve been advocating a general Bluetooth-on-IP strategy for some time. But my initial attempts to communicate this to the BT world, however, were clumsy at best, and I think the Bluetooth powers that be are still mad at me.
My last briefing with the SIG, about two years ago, went poorly. I mostly said that I thought the continued development of a dead-end 1-3 Mbps frequency-hopping radio was just that, a dead end, although even I had to admit that the huge installed base on handsets, mostly in the service of wireless headsets, likely indicated that the BT PHY/MAC would be around for a long time. But it seemed a shame that (a) we have to put a radio into a handset, taking up valuable real estate (to say nothing of the power and cost budgets) just to support a headset, and (b) the BT applications stack has a lot of great functionality, although interoperability has been a problem with some implementations. Anyway, I pushed the idea of (a) drop the dead-end radio, and (b) port the applications to other networks, especially to IP, and make them the de-facto standard for network-based file, print, video, etc., operations.
Well, of course, I neglected to think about all of those powerful interests out there building BT chips, and I think they also still have my picture up on dartboards in break rooms around the world. But the Bluetooth SIG is most definitely moving in the right direction with the Wi-Fi announcement, and I think it will serve the BT community very well for many years to come. Of course, the next question is, BT on Wi-Fi or BT or UWB? OK, I’ve got my lead underwear on now, and Wi-Fi gets my vote. Like I said, many years to come.
And, hey, how about a Wi-Fi headset?
