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Showing papers on "Bluetooth published in 2010"


Journal Article
TL;DR: The important role that mobile ad hoc networks play in the evolution of future wireless technologies is explained and the latest research activities in these areas of MANET_s characteristics, capabilities and applications are reviewed.
Abstract: A mobile ad hoc network (MANET), sometimes called a mobile mesh network, is a self-configuring network of mobile devices connected by wireless links. The Ad hoc networks are a new wireless networking paradigm for mobile hosts. Unlike traditional mobile wireless networks, ad hoc networks do not rely on any fixed infrastructure. Instead, hosts rely on each other to keep the network connected. It represent complex distributed systems that comprise wireless mobile nodes that can freely and dynamically self-organize into arbitrary and temporary, ‘‘ad-hoc’’ network topologies, allowing people and devices to seamlessly internetwork in areas with no pre-existing communication infrastructure. Ad hoc networking concept is not a new one, having been around in various forms for over 20 years. Traditionally, tactical networks have been the only communication networking application that followed the adhoc paradigm. Recently, the introduction of new technologies such as the Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 and Hyperlan are helping enable eventual commercial MANET deployments outside the military domain. These recent evolutions have been generating a renewed and growing interest in the research and development of MANET. This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of this dynamic field. It first explains the important role that mobile ad hoc networks play in the evolution of future wireless technologies. Then, it reviews the latest research activities in these areas of MANET_s characteristics, capabilities and applications.

442 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Uichin Lee1, Mario Gerla1
TL;DR: A comparative study confirms that system performance is impacted by a variety of factors such as wireless access methods, mobility, user location, and popularity of the information, in the process gaining insight into vehicular sensor network design.

239 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Bluetooth sensors are introduced as a new and effective means of data collection of freeway ground truth travel time and results show that the new technology is a promising method for collecting high-quality travel time data that can be used as ground truth for evaluating other sources ofTravel time and other intelligent transportation system applications.
Abstract: Accurate travel time information is essential to the effective management of traffic conditions. Traditionally, floating car data have been used as the primary source of ground truth for measuring the quality of real-time travel time provided by traffic surveillance systems. This paper introduces Bluetooth sensors as a new and effective means of data collection of freeway ground truth travel time. The concept of vehicle identification using Bluetooth signatures for travel time estimation along a section of freeway is explained. Issues related to error analysis, filtering of raw matched data, and accuracy of the resulting ground truth compared with floating car are discussed. Data from loop detectors on several freeway segments are used to approximate and report the average sampling rate of Bluetooth sensors. Results show that the new technology is a promising method for collecting high-quality travel time data that can be used as ground truth for evaluating other sources of travel time and other intellige...

231 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The main objectives of this paper are to explore the quality of the data produced by Bluetooth detection of mobile devices that equip vehicles for travel time forecasting and its use in estimating time-dependent origin-destination matrices.
Abstract: Traditional technologies, such as inductive loop detectors, do not usually produce measurements of the quality required by real-time applications. Therefore, one wonders what could be expected from newer information and communication technologies, such as automatic vehicle location, license plate recognition, and detection of mobile devices. The main objectives of this paper are to explore the quality of the data produced by Bluetooth detection of mobile devices that equip vehicles for travel time forecasting and its use in estimating time-dependent origin-destination matrices. Ad hoc procedures based on Kalman filtering have been designed and implemented successfully, and the numerical results of the computational experiments are presented and discussed.

227 citations


Patent
30 Apr 2010
TL;DR: X-Path as mentioned in this paper is a proximity based social marketing tool/device that is free from a physical location and can be used for matching users and broadcasting messages or data to all or selected users in the proximity.
Abstract: A proximity based social marketing tool/device that is free from a physical location and can be used for matching users and broadcasting messages or data to all or selected users in the proximity. These users can be searched by scanning the selected proximity range and/or by defining various keyword criteria's. And it utilizes one or more or a combination of various short-range or long-range wireless communication technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC, TransferJet, Internet, and others. The X-Path device can locate and store user's location details in the X-path server, which can be retrieved and used by users to broadcast messages to a specific category of an audience. It also makes for a great Social networking tool and takes the concept of Social Networking from the Internet out to the real Physical World.

164 citations


Patent
07 Sep 2010
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a system that allows a person to manage some of the functions of a cell phone without having to actually have the phone in her hands by sending a user-specified message to the caller and/or managing how the call should be handled through a remote device.
Abstract: According to certain aspects, the invention allows a person to manage some of the functions of a cell phone without having to actually have the phone in her hands. For example, the invention allows the user to know of the incoming call and further allows the user to send a user-specified message to the caller and/or otherwise manage how the call should be handled through a remote device. In certain embodiments, the invention is comprised of: a decorative watch-like or bracelet-like case; a decorative wrist band; a vibrating incoming call indicator; a partial or full face display; touch screen input capability, accelerometer for wrist flick input capability, and/or side buttons for user inputs; a Bluetooth antenna; a Bluetooth transmitter and receiver; a rechargeable battery; a connector or wireless charging element; a display/general purpose control unit with firmware; and standard Bluetooth link and application software on an associated cellular phone.

160 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
05 May 2010
TL;DR: This paper demonstrates with experimental results that by training and then activating different neural networks, tailored on the user orientation, high definition accuracy is achievable, allowing indoor navigation with a cost effective Bluetooth (BT) architecture.
Abstract: Over the last years, many different methods have been proposed for indoor localization and navigation services based on Radio frequency (RF) technology and Radio Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI). The accuracy achieved with such systems is typically low, mainly due to the variability of RSSI values, unsuitable for classic localization methods (e.g. triangulation). In this paper, we propose a novel approach based on multiple neural networks. We demonstrate with experimental results that by training and then activating different neural networks, tailored on the user orientation, high definition accuracy is achievable, allowing indoor navigation with a cost effective Bluetooth (BT) architecture.

159 citations


Patent
08 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this article, a location server provides user locations via methods such as RSSI, TDOA, and GPS and sends location information to a Center Control Server and the Authentication Server with location information, the center control server initiates and optimizes secure information processes and coordinates the functions of servers and user terminals.
Abstract: Wireless personal area network (Zigbee, Bluetooth, UWB) and wireless identification technologies (Near Field Communication (NFC), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)) are implemented in particular client server functions and communications. Connected with an Authentication Server, a wireless HUB authenticates user identification and provides the user with access to secure data communication with a wireless terminal such as a cellular phone or a PDA. A Location Server provides user locations via methods such as RSSI, TDOA, and GPS and sends location information to a Center Control Server and the Authentication Server. With location information, the Center Control Server initiates and optimizes secure information processes and coordinates the functions of servers and user terminals.

145 citations


Patent
26 Feb 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, a Near Field Communication (NFC) read-only tag is placed in the vehicle such that a user can pass an NFC-enabled Bluetooth device near the tag, which then transfers encryption key data for the vehicle's Bluetooth device to the user's Bluetooth devices.
Abstract: A system and method for simply and securely pairing Bluetooth devices in a vehicle. A Near Field Communication (NFC) read-only tag is placed in the vehicle such that a user can pass an NFC-enabled Bluetooth device near the tag, which then transfers encryption key data for the vehicle's Bluetooth device to the user's Bluetooth device. Various embodiments are disclosed for initiating the pairing process with the vehicle's Bluetooth device, which ordinarily remains in a silent mode for security reasons. Once the pairing process has been initiated, and the user's Bluetooth device has been passed near the NFC tag, the pairing process is completed with no further action required by the user.

137 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article proposes the use of a cheap and reliable technology as RFID to develop a passive RFID-based indoor location system that is able to accurately locate autonomous entities, such as robots and people, within a defined surface.
Abstract: Location awareness is a key issue to improve the development of autonomous entities that are embedded into ubiquitous computing environments. GPS seems to be the best solution to develop outdoor location systems, but the performance of these systems is not good enough to locate objects or humans within indoor environments, mainly if accuracy and precision are required. In this article we propose the use of a cheap and reliable technology as RFID to develop a passive RFID-based indoor location system that is able to accurately locate autonomous entities, such as robots and people, within a defined surface. This system is applied to solve the robot tracking problem. We include the evaluation of the proposal by comparing our system technology performance with other alternatives built on different technologies (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IrDA, ultrasound, etc.). We have also performed a location awareness proof concept test to analyze the viability of the approach.

122 citations


Patent
20 Apr 2010
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a wireless device that is capable of linking to a vehicle via a close range antenna, such as a Bluetooth antenna, which can receive location data and determine the speed of the wireless device.
Abstract: In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes a wireless device that is capable of linking to a vehicle via a close range antenna, such as a Bluetooth antenna. Once the wireless device is linked to the vehicle it can receive location data and determine the speed of the wireless device. If the speed exceeds a predefined threshold the wireless device may have its wireless communications deactivated. If the wireless device is utilizing a hands free device wireless communications may be permitted. The use of the link to the vehicle ensures that the wireless device will not be deactivated when, for example, it is used on a train. In addition, waiting to gather location data and determine speed until when the wireless device is associated with a vehicle will save battery life. The wireless device may have a speed determination scheme that takes into account GPS multipath.

Patent
05 Apr 2010
TL;DR: In this article, a Bluetooth enabled mobile device discovers the Bluetooth profile capability of a plurality of mobile phones and stores the profile information in a database, and when access to a remote network such as an Internet Protocol (IP) network is necessitated by an event, the Bluetooth enabled device can establish a Bluetooth connection with an available mobile phone according to a comparison of the event to the stored profile information for that mobile phone.
Abstract: In one example, a Bluetooth enabled mobile device discovers the Bluetooth profile capability of a plurality of mobile phones and stores the profile information in a database. Thereafter, when access to a remote network such as an Internet Protocol (IP) network is necessitated by an event, the Bluetooth enabled mobile device can establish a Bluetooth connection with an available mobile phone according to a comparison of the event to the stored profile information for that mobile phone. The Bluetooth enabled mobile device can then establish a transport layer connection that extends over the established Bluetooth connection and a wireless telecommunications network associated with the available phone and exchange data with a remote network using the established transport layer connection.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
13 Jun 2010
TL;DR: This paper presents an inquiry-based Bluetooth indoor positioning solution via RSSI probability distributions designed after the Bluetooth protocol and profiles are studied and the results show the possibility of indoor positioning through inquiring the Bluetooth-enabled handsets in range.
Abstract: This paper presents an inquiry-based Bluetooth indoor positioning solution via RSSI probability distributions. A practical system architecture is designed after the Bluetooth protocol and profiles are studied. Weibull function is applied for approximating the Bluetooth signal strength distribution in the data training phase. The Histogram Maximum Likelihood position estimation based on Bayesian theory is utilized in the location determination phase. The results show the possibility of indoor positioning through inquiring the Bluetooth-enabled handsets in range. Weibull distribution improves the performance of fingerprinting. The practicality of the system architecture is also proved by the outcome of a test campaign.

Patent
22 Jun 2010
TL;DR: In this article, a system and method for providing wireless voice-controlled walk-through pairing and other functionality of telecommunications, audio headsets, and other communications devices, such as mobile telephones and personal digital assistants, is presented.
Abstract: A system and method for providing wireless voice-controlled walk-through pairing and other functionality of telecommunications, audio headsets, and other communications devices, such as mobile telephones and personal digital assistants. In accordance with an embodiment, a headset, speaker or other device equipped with a microphone can receive a voice command directly from the user, recognize the command, and then perform functions on a communications device, such as a mobile telephone. The functions can, for example, include requesting the telephone call a number from its address book. In accordance with various embodiments the functions can also include advanced control of the communications device, such as pairing the device with an audio headset, or another Bluetooth device.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper briefly illustrates how MAC addresses can be used to estimate arterial link travel times and empirically illustrates the sensitivity of sample size to sensor placement and recommends a Class I Bluetooth detector mounting height of at least 8 ft above the pavement grade.
Abstract: The consumer electronics industry has made extensive use of the Bluetooth wireless protocol in many portable devices. A substantial number of these Bluetooth devices broadcast a unique identifier in the form of the media access control (MAC) addresses. These MAC addresses can be captured electronically and the same matching algorithms used in traditional license plate studies can be used to estimate segment travel time and origin-destination matrices. This paper briefly illustrates how these data can be used to estimate arterial link travel times and empirically illustrates the sensitivity of sample size to sensor placement. A controlled experiment with fixed lateral mounting and varying vertical mounting heights is then conducted to develop design recommendations for mounting Bluetooth monitoring devices. The paper concludes by recommending a Class I Bluetooth detector mounting height of at least 8 ft above the pavement grade. Based on a 24-h empirical data set on I-65 in Indianapolis, we found that 7.4%...

Proceedings ArticleDOI
03 May 2010
TL;DR: Novel approaches for obtaining distance estimates and trilateration that overcome the hitherto known limitations of using bluetooth for localization are introduced that have the potential of being scaled to multi-agent scenarios.
Abstract: In this paper, we describe an accurate method for localization of a mobile robot using bluetooth. We introduce novel approaches for obtaining distance estimates and trilateration that overcome the hitherto known limitations of using bluetooth for localization. Our approach is reliable and has the potential of being scaled to multi-agent scenarios. The proposed approach was tested on a mobile robot, and we present the experimental results. The error obtained was 0.427 ± 0.229 m, which proves the accuracy of our method.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Electronic wireless sensors could cut medical costs by enabling physicians to remotely monitor vital signs such as blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood oxygenation while patients remains at home while patients remain at home.
Abstract: Electronic wireless sensors could cut medical costs by enabling physicians to remotely monitor vital signs such as blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood oxygenation while patients remain at home. According to the IDC report "Worldwide Bluetooth Semiconductor 2008-2012 Forecast," published November 2008, a forthcoming radio frequency communication ("wireless connectivity") standard, Bluetooth low energy, will link wireless sensors via radio signals to the 70% of cell phones and computers likely to be fitted with the next generation of Bluetooth wireless technology, leveraging a ready-built infrastructure for data transmission. Analysis of trends indicated by this data can help physicians better manage diseases such as diabetes. The technology also addresses the concerns of cost, compatibility, and interoperability that have previously stalled widespread adoption of wireless technology in medical applications.

Patent
26 Aug 2010
TL;DR: In this article, a low-cost and power-saving system and methodology that reduces interference, unnecessary signaling and allows for more pertinent network listen measurements, by employing Bluetooth® technology in a femto access point (FAP) is provided.
Abstract: A low-cost and power-saving system and methodology that reduces interference, unnecessary signaling and allows for more pertinent network listen measurements, by employing Bluetooth® technology in a femto access point (FAP) is provided. Moreover, a cellular transmitter in the FAP remains deactivated and is activated only if a UE, authorized for femtocell access, is within the femtocell coverage area. Bluetooth pairing is employed to identify authorized UEs within the femtocell coverage area. In an aspect, the FAP includes a Bluetooth modem that broadcasts a unique Bluetooth identity (ID) and facilitates Bluetooth pairing with nearby UEs. During the interval when the cellular transmitter is deactivated, the FAP performs background activities (e.g., network listen scanning and/or femto jamming of macro pilot). Additionally, a Bluetooth repeater is embedded within the FAP that extends the range of a Bluetooth-enabled device to the femtocell coverage area.

Journal ArticleDOI
J.P. Dunning1
01 Mar 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, a taxonomy for threats against Bluetooth-enabled devices, describes several of these threats, and identifies steps for threat mitigation, as well as steps to detect and mitigate them.
Abstract: As Bluetooth finds its way into millions of devices worldwide, it also becomes a prime target for hackers. The author presents a taxonomy for threats against Bluetooth-enabled devices, describes several of these threats, and identifies steps for threat mitigation.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The real-time MAC reader information provides substantial opportunity to add new control and performance monitoring capability to other intelligent transportation system components, such as ramp metering, transit signal priority systems, and adaptive signal control.
Abstract: This study reports on the use of media access control (MAC) readers hrough the Bluetooth protocol by means of off-the-shelf equipment to measure arterial travel performance (segment travel time, average running speed, and origin-destination). First, the MAC reader technology was deployed at the same time that travel time runs by the traditional floating-car method were used to evaluate the general reliability and accuracy of the MAC technology. Second, the MAC reader technology was used to track before-and-after changes to signal timing along the corridor to measure the effectiveness of the adjustments, proving its real-world applicability while requiring far fewer resources than raditional data collection means. A comparison of the Bluetooth MAC address data with traditional Global Positioning System floating-car studies suggests that the larger data set from the Bluetooth data more effectively captures performance characteristics of the arterial. The research was conducted on a 2.5-mi suburban signalize...

Book ChapterDOI
08 Jul 2010
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that mobile phone-based botnets are a realistic threat and that defensive strategies should be modified to consider them and how traditional defense mechanisms can bemodified to take advantage of the same information to more effectively mitigate such systems.
Abstract: Malware targeting mobile phones is being studied with increasing interest by the research community While such attention has previously focused on viruses and worms, many of which use near-field communications in order to propagate, none have investigated whether more complex malware such as bot-nets can effectively operate in this environment In this paper, we investigate the challenges of constructing and maintaining mobile phone-based botnets communicating nearly exclusively via Bluetooth Through extensive large-scale simulation based on publicly available Bluetooth traces, we demonstrate that such a malicious infrastructure is possible in many areas due to the largely repetitive nature of human daily routines In particular, we demonstrate that command and control messages can propagate to approximately 2/3 of infected nodes within 24 hours of being issued by the botmaster We then explore how traditional defense mechanisms can be modified to take advantage of the same information to more effectively mitigate such systems In so doing, we demonstrate that mobile phone-based botnets are a realistic threat and that defensive strategies should be modified to consider them

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A new WLAN based EKF indoor tracking method is proposed by extending existing Bluetooth based EkF positioning method to further improve the accuracy of indoor tracking by adjusting the parameter values referring to the map information.
Abstract: Location Based Service (LBS) cannot be realized unless the location of the user is available. For indoor LBS, indoor positioning must be utilized and many researchers have been working on indoor positioning and tracking. For example, Extended Kalman filter (EKF) was exploited in Bluetooth based indoor positioning. Nowadays, WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) is available virtually everywhere. Thus, WLAN based indoor positioning and tracking is more economical than Bluetooth based ones. This paper proposes a new WLAN based EKF indoor tracking method by extending existing Bluetooth based EKF positioning method. After analyzing the experimental results of it, we modified it to use K-NN method in the measurement stage of it. Then we propose to further improve the accuracy of indoor tracking by adjusting the parameter values referring to the map information. Experimental results comparing our method with other previous methods are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, two new Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks on Bluetooth Secure Simple Pairing (SSP) are proposed based on the falsification of information sent during the input/output capabilities exchange and also the fact that the security of the protocol is likely to be limited by the capabilities of the least powerful or the least secure device type.
Abstract: We propose two new Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks on Bluetooth Secure Simple Pairing (SSP). The attacks are based on the falsification of information sent during the input/output capabilities exchange and also the fact that the security of the protocol is likely to be limited by the capabilities of the least powerful or the least secure device type. In addition, we devise countermeasures that render the attacks impractical, as well as improvements to the existing Bluetooth SSP in order to make it more secure. Moreover, we provide a comparative analysis of the existing MITM attacks on Bluetooth.

01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: Two new Man-In-The-Middle attacks on Bluetooth Secure Simple Pairing (SSP) are proposed based on the falsification of information sent during the input/output capabilities exchange and the fact that the security of the protocol is likely to be limited by the capabilities of the least powerful or the least secure device type.
Abstract: We propose two new Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks on Bluetooth Secure Simple Pairing (SSP). The attacks are based on the falsification of information sent during the input/output capabilities exchange and also the fact that the security of the protocol is likely to be limited by the capabilities of the least powerful or the least secure device type. In addition, we devise countermeasures that render the attacks impractical, as well as improvements to the existing Bluetooth SSP in order to make it more secure. Moreover, we provide a comparative analysis of the existing MITM attacks on Bluetooth. Index Terms—Bluetooth, man-in-the-middle attack, out-of- band channel, secure simple pairing, wireless security.

01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: The results and findings underline the validity of Bluetooth tracking to collect data from visitors at mass events, as well as the ability of sequence alignment methods to extract insightful information from sequences within such data.
Abstract: The use of Bluetooth technology as a technique to collect data about the movement of individuals is increasingly gaining attention. This paper explores the potential of sequence alignment methods to analyse data obtained from Bluetooth tracking. To this end, an empirical case study is elaborated which applies sequence alignment methods to examine the behavioural patterns of visitors tracked by Bluetooth at a huge trade fair in Belgium. The results and findings underline both the validity of Bluetooth tracking to collect data from visitors at mass events, as well as the ability of sequence alignment methods to extract insightful information from sequences within such data.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
04 Nov 2010
TL;DR: The analytical delay model and simulation results show that the proposed QoS enhancement can improve the delay and goodput of the network, thus ensuring the reliability, availability, and performance of a Smart Grid distribution monitoring and control.
Abstract: In order to realize the Smart Grid vision, it is necessary to have guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) for the communication and networking technology used in various stages of the Smart Grid, ranging from power generation, transmission, distribution, to the customer applications. The low cost wireless protocols such as Zigbee (using IEEE 802.15.4 defined physical and MAC layer) and Bluetooth (IEEE802.15.1) are especially useful for the power distribution system monitoring and customer applications. However, they do not support QoS and typically have a short propagation distance. In this paper, we propose to add the QoS into these low cost protocols by providing differentiated service for traffic of different priority at the MAC layer and use Zigbee as an example. Our analytical delay model and simulation results show that the proposed QoS enhancement can improve the delay and goodput of the network, thus ensuring the reliability, availability, and performance of a Smart Grid distribution monitoring and control.

01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared two types of antennae, omni-directional and directional, to determine the effects of antenna selection on travel time data collection and found that omnidirectional sensors have a larger detection zone than the directional sensors and are subject to more noise and bigger spatial errors.
Abstract: Recently, a new Bluetooth-based travel time data collection approach has been gaining momentum in the transportation research community. This approach relies on identifying and matching the median access control (MAC) address of each Bluetooth device carried by bypassing vehicles for travel time data collection. Although there have been several studies documenting such data collection techniques, little research has been done regarding the inherent error rate of these devices. Furthermore, the use of multiple devices in tandem to improve results has not been fully investigated. This paper compares Bluetooth MAC address-based travel-time sensors developed by the authors with standard automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) devices commonly used for travel time data collection. Two types of antennae, omni-directional and directional, were tested to determine the effects of antenna selection on travel time data collection. Omni-directional sensors were found to have a larger detection zone than the directional sensors and are subject to more noise and bigger spatial errors, as a vehicle may be detected anywhere within the zone. Meanwhile, a larger detection zone also corresponds to a bigger sample size. Our test results indicate that although the Bluetooth sensors tended to be biased towards slower vehicles, the travel time measurements obtained were representative of the ground truth travel-time data measured by the ALPRs. There is great potential to apply this approach for cost-effective travel time data collection.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: While ultrawideband (UWB) technology using the 3-0 GHz band promised to fulfill these needs, it fell short in many ways, and, today, most of the start-up companies pursuing UWB have folded.
Abstract: Silicon-based RF and microwave technology has had a dramatic impact on the world of wireless technology. We can now access voice/data and entertainment in virtually every corner of the globe - with everything from short range Bluetooth and WiFi networks to cellular and satellite networks - to meet different range and throughput requirements. A laptop computer without wireless capability is unthinkable today, whereas, ten years ago, these technologies were in their infancy.What do the next ten years hold? What gaps in wireless technology exist even today? Perhaps the most obvious missing link is between the various devices that we carry with us, such as cellular phones or personal digital assistants (or smart phones if you prefer), digital cameras, music and video players (such as the ubiquitous iPod), laptops, and peripherals such as external hard drives and monitors. The case of the mobile smart phone is particularly important since the existing wireless connectivity is either too slow and power hungry (Bluetooth) or designed and optimized for longer ranges (WiFi). What is missing is a wireless universal connectivity that can support high data rates demanded by large data rate multimedia applications. Wireless technology has been conspicuously absent from MP3 music players (such as Apple's iPod), which are ideal candidates for downloading music and video. While ultrawideband (UWB) technology using the 3-0 GHz band promised to fulfill these needs, it fell short in many ways, and, today, most of the start-up companies pursuing UWB have folded.

Patent
14 Jun 2010
TL;DR: In this article, an apparatus and method for effectively and efficiently arbitrating concurrent usage between WLAN and Bluetooth access technologies for co-located wireless devices is presented. But the method is not suitable for wireless transceivers.
Abstract: An apparatus and method are disclosed for effectively and efficiently arbitrating concurrent usage between WLAN and Bluetooth access technologies for co-located wireless devices. A state level arbiter determines state and relevant parameters of a WLAN module and of a Bluetooth module of a wireless transceiver unit. The state level arbiter uses the state and relevant parameters to determine which access technology (WLAN or Bluetooth) or combination of the access technologies (WLAN or Bluetooth) will provide the best concurrent performance for wireless transmissions at a given time for specific Bluetooth states and WLAN states.

Patent
04 Oct 2010
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of interference between multiple air interfaces located on an electronic device are investigated, including a WLAN interface and PAN (e.g., Bluetooth) interface, and information such as Receiver Signal Strength Index (RSSI) as well as system noise level information are used in order to intelligently execute interference mitigation methodologies.
Abstract: Methods and apparatus for mitigating the effects of interference between multiple air interfaces located on an electronic device. In one embodiment, the air interfaces include a WLAN interface and PAN (e.g., Bluetooth) interface, and information such as Receiver Signal Strength Index (RSSI) as well as system noise level information are used in order to intelligently execute interference mitigation methodologies, including the selective application of modified frequency selection, variation of transmitter power, and/or change of operating mode (e.g., from multiple-in multiple-out (MIMO) to single-in, single-out (SISO)) so as to reduce isolation requirements between the interfaces. These methods and apparatus are particularly well suited to use cases where the WLAN interface is operating with high data transmission rates. Business methods associated with the foregoing technology are also described.