Project PDA

Bluetooth supports two different forms of networking. The most basic and commonly implemented form is dial-up networking using PPP over a serial connection. In addition, there is BNEP, an encapsulation of Ethernet networking, which allows Bluetooth devices to join a network in a manner much more analogous to Wi-Fi networking.

Bluetooth is a wireless Personal Area Networking (PAN) technology that allows devices to connect in a range of 33 feet (10 meters) or more depending on the radio's strength. Bluetooth, abbreviated as BT here, uses a wireless radio to transmit data and operates in the 2.4 GHz spectrum, as does WiFi. Despite the shared spectrum our BT devices and WiFi access point were in the same room but didn't interfere with each other. Bluetooth enabled phones are more common in Asia and Europe (the US continues to lag behind 2 years in cell phone technology), which means you'll find maybe 5 phones, spread out among different carriers here in the US.

Bluetooth networks feature a dynamic topology called a piconet or PAN. Piconets contain a minimum of two and a maximum of eight Bluetooth peer devices. Devices communicate using protocols that are part of the Bluetooth Specification. Definitions for multiple versions of the Bluetooth specification exist including versions 1.1, 1.2 and 2.0.

Bluetooth is free technology and it is provided by the mobile phone operators who are having the capability of GSM and CDMA technology. Bluetooth uses radio waves frequency as a medium and is suitable for the 1, 10 and 100 meters distance. Every Bluetooth enabled devices such as mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras, video games consoles have built-in microchip.

The operating system for Pocket PC devices—does not come with any API for Bluetooth communication. As such, you have to use other methods, such as platform invoke, to communicate using Bluetooth. The lack of an API for Bluetooth means that you are not able to program Bluetooth communications in the same way you use sockets for TCP/IP communications. Instead, Bluetooth is just another serial port. And so, Bluetooth communication is actually done via serial connections. You can see for yourself by going to Bluetooth Manager—>Tools—>Settings for All Devices—>Serial Port in your Pocket PC's main menu.