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Date:      Mon, 04 Feb 2002 19:17:34 -0800
From:      Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
To:        Duncan Barclay <dmlb@dmlb.org>
Cc:        Maksim Yevmenkin <myevmenk@digisle.net>, freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Bluetooth stack for FreeBSD (full status)
Message-ID:  <3C5F4ECE.9FC6FC3B@mindspring.com>
References:  <3C5F003D.CA329159@digisle.net> <3C5F1CE4.1566F495@mindspring.com> <00a201c1add7$dc2e99e0$27c8a8c0@my.domain>

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Duncan Barclay wrote:
> There are now a few devices with Bluetooth in them. Sony has had a Viao
> with it in for a while.

Which model?  My PCG-XG29 and the 505 a friend of mine
recently bout don't have it.  You'd think that with IBM
being so "gung ho" about BlueTooth, that every ThinkPad,
IBM "Palm Pilot", and Lexmark printer would have it.

IBM is notoriously schitzophrenic, though, and it's
pretty clear it's the technical people puching it, and
manufacturing is far behind.


> 802.11e is not gigabit wireless. .11e is quality of service enhancements
> to the .11 MAC. You may be confusing it with .11a - 54Mbps at 5.2GHz or
> the new .11g giving 54Mbps at 2.45GHz. Some people (Proxim) have .11a cards
> that can operate at 108Mbps. This will have a reduced range though as they
> probably halve the forward error correction somehow - maybe by
> increased puncturing.

Actually, I was thinking of 802.16, but I turned the
"6" into an "e".  There was a recent article on it, where
the FCC had approved it, but the cell phone companies were
all up in arms over their revenue model being shot in the
head.

It uses broadband over a large number of carrier frequencies,
and *really* is gigabit wireless.

The article also noted that radio astronomers were upset
about the amount of "white noise" it would produce, which
would make radio astronomy harder.


> .11 without .11e is worse than Bluetooth for certain data types. For example
> it cannot carry isochronous data. Bluetooth was never meant to compete
> with .11 and was designed for a different purpose - mobile phones.
> Wanderering around the UK's high streets a lot of phone shops and a
> couple of the bigger consumer electronics chains are now selling
> Bluetooth enabled stuff.

I've also heard it sold as "the ultimate solution for PDAs",
and "the replacement for IR links, which currently have to
be line-of-sight", and "the way to get rid of cables".

I think we'll eventually find out that "it's both a desert
topping, and a floor wax!".  8-).  But right now, it's a
solution in search of a problem.

All this is really going off topic, though...

-- Terry

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