Chapter 1

Bluetooth is the name given to a wireless standard that was developed by Ericsson. The name Bluetooth was taken after a mythical Viking God and it seems that the developers at Ericsson, which is a Swedish company, thought it would be a good name when they were developing the standard.

Bluetooth communications operate wirelessly on the 2.4 Gigahertz frequency band. This band was established as a "free use" frequency spectrum by the various world governing bodies that allocate "free use"and "pay for use" frequency spectrum. This means that a company that develops and produces devices that operate in this band does not have to purchase a license to use this frequency spectrum. Many devices that operate in the 2.4 Ghz band have been available in the market, including home wireless telephones, laptops and computers that have wireless capability and "centrino" chips built in.

Bluetooth is simply a standardized way of using this frequency. It allows a manufacturer of one type of device, a cell phone for example, to communicate wirelessly with another type of device made by another manufacturer like a headset, laptop computer or car stereo. In other words if one has a bluetooth capable phone from Motorola and they purchase a car from BMW that has a bluetooth capable car stereo, then the phone and stereo will link wirelessly and conversations can occur hands free through the car stereo when the user is in the vehicle. The same holds true if you have a bluetooth computer through which one can establish a cellular band data connection with their cell phone etc. There are many present and future applications for which bluetooth is beneficial.