The Convenient Technology of Bluetooth Wireless

'Adaptive Radio': The Next Big Thing in Wireless?

James Collier is loping in a broad circle on the Midsummer Common in Cambridge, England, holding aloft a two-foot fiberglass antenna. Cables snake from the antenna to a flat green box about the size of a vinyl record sleeve, which he’s carrying in a backpack. About 10 yards away, another antenna and another green box are connected to a laptop, receiving Collier’s signal and tracing his oval-shaped path on a map. “Of course,” he says, “this will all be much smaller.”

Collier runs Neul, the Cambridge startup that makes the green boxes, which house a new technology called “adaptive radio.” Today, anything that transmits long-range signals over the airwaves—radios, cell phones, television networks—broadcasts on a single, fixed frequency. Think of the 106.7 that appears on your radio dial. Both broadcaster and listener have to be tuned to the same wave. Each cell phone, similarly, has its own allotted frequency to communicate with nearby towers. Carriers must spend billions to license chunks of spectrum to make sure their subscribers can connect wherever they go.

A radio from Neul—or one of several startups working on similar technology—upends this whole system. An adaptive radio doesn’t always use the same fixed frequency but checks to see which frequencies around it aren’t in use, then borrows empty air for a short-term connection. As devices move around, the connection can shift, too. Collier’s loop around Cambridge is a demonstration—part of a trial led by Microsoft (MSFT) and other tech giants—that the idea works technologically. If it works commercially, too, it could change the dynamics of the wireless business.

An adaptive network could help companies in the U.S. such as AT&T (T) or Verizon Wireless run their networks far more efficiently by squeezing more smartphones and other devices onto a given range of wireless spectrum. Collier says he’s in touch with some big-name companies that want to do exactly that. And since adaptive radios find unused airspace without interfering with other signals, they could make it feasible to build new, high-speed networks without spending billions to license frequencies. “This could absolutely pose a challenge” to existing mobile networks, says Rick Rotondo, the vice president of marketing at XG Technology, a Florida-based competitor to Neul. “Someone with the pockets of a Google (GOOG), a Microsoft, an Apple (AAPL), they could make a run of this and create their own network.”

The success of adaptive radios depends on some regulatory changes, however. The technology makes particularly good use of unlicensed spectrum, set aside by regulators for anyone to use. The problem is, there’s precious little of it, and most of what’s available works best over short ranges. In February, Congress authorized unlicensed use of the so-called white spaces that are left between television broadcast signals to prevent interference. And at a conference in Orlando, Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology, hinted that the commission would open up more unlicensed spectrum in the future.

The Microsoft-led trial in Cambridge, which finished in April and also counted Nokia (NOK), Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), and the BBC as participants, showed that a citywide network of adaptive radios could work without affecting existing transmissions. The trial was in part an effort to persuade Ofcom, Britain’s telecom regulator, to start freeing up white spaces in the U.K.

The technology that makes adaptive radio systems work comes mostly from startups. Spectrum Bridge manages a database of radio frequencies; adaptive radios check it to know which ones to avoid. Neul, 6harmonics, and Adaptrum all make various pieces of the radios or antennae.

The startups say that by eliminating the high cost of acquiring a spectrum license, adaptive radio networks will unlock all kinds of wireless innovation. In Cambridge, Neul developed an application that notified the city council when trash cans needed emptying. Similar sensors run by New Hanover County in North Carolina monitor water quality on the Intracoastal Waterway. Such applications are possible with existing networks, but would require paying a hefty monthly fee to a telecom company such as AT&T. Collier says you could even use adaptive radios to monitor conditions in dangerous areas. “Toss hundreds of sensors out the back of a helicopter, then plant a single antenna,” he says.

The bottom line: A recent trial in England proves the feasibility of adaptive radios, which could spur wireless innovation by reducing costs.

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7 Wireless Technologies That Make the World Go Round

Fantastic New Wireless Technology Explodes Across The Planet

Bluetooth does not describe a dental condition in which a patient has blue teeth. The term "Bluetooth" signifies a special new technology, a technology of the 21st Century. The devices with Bluetooth technology allow the user of such devices to conduct 2-way transmissions over short distances. Usually the distance between the communicating Bluetooth devices runs no more than 150 feet. . The individual who has access to two or more devices with Bluetooth technology has the ability to carryout such short-range communications.

One big advantage to having access to some of the devices with the Bluetooth technology is the opportunity one gains to conduct a "conversation" between mobile and stationary technological items. The Bluetooth car kit underlines the plus side of having access to the Bluetooth technology. The Bluetooth car kit sets the stage for a "conversation" between a mobile and a stationary electrical gadget.

For example, the Bluetooth car kit permits a cell phone in the garage to communicate with a home computer. Thanks to Bluetooth, a car driver with a cell phone could sit inside a car and send a message to a home computer. By the same token, Bluetooth technology could allow a car to send a message to a personal computer. Such a message could inform a car owner that the motor vehicle sitting in the garage needed an oil change, rotation of the tires or some other routine procedure.

Not all of modern automobiles come equipped with Bluetooth technology. So far only Acura, BMW, Toyota Prius and Lexus have chosen to provide the consumer with this special feature. In order for the car owner to benefit from the potential of Bluetooth technology in a motor vehicle, all of the devices with that technology must use the same type of profile.

For example, if a car audio system contains devices with the Bluetooth technology, then any of the communications that take place between those devices require Bluetooth equipment that uses the same profile. Such restrictions typically specify that the Bluetooth car kit will work only if all of the inter-device communicating involves equipment that operates under the hands-free profile. In other words, a Bluetooth car kit would not be expected to allow a cell phone with a headset profile to communicate with a computer that had a dial-up networking profile.

Of course Bluetooth technology is not confined to the automobile. It has also been responsible for allowing young teens to listen to music from an iPod, while at the same time being equipped and ready to handle any number of cell phone calls. On other occasions those same teens might choose to use the Bluetooth technology to send selected images from a digital camera to a home computer.

The Bluetooth technology has demonstrated the ability to lay the groundwork for creation of a mobile entertainment system. It could also facilitate the quick assembly of an operating and mobile office space. The father of the young teen who was listening to a iPod could very-well be the traveling business man at the airport, the man who must wait for a delayed flight. Access to the Bluetooth technology would give such a man the ability to set-up a temporary "office" in the airport terminal.

Once that same traveling businessman had reached his destination, and once he had settled in a motel room, then he might use the Bluetooth technology to send signals from a laptop computer to a printer server. Both younger and older adults have demonstrated that Bluetooth technology is definitely a technology of the 21st Century. Who could guess that the Bluetooth technology got its name from King Harold, "Bluetooth," of Denmark, who lived back in the 10th Century? King Harold sought to unite the countries of Scandinavia, much as the Bluetooth technology helps the different types of informational devices to work in unison.

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