Learn what Bluetooth is and why it is named after a famous king

What is Bluetooth and where does its strange name come from? Nowadays, this technology is used by the vast majority of people due to its great usefulness for connecting wireless peripherals, as well as speakers and headphones, besides being an ideal medium for short-range data transfer. Read on to learn more about this technology that you use every day.

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The strange name of Bluetooth

You need to go back to 1996, when Nirvana reigned supreme on the radio, pokémon were everywhere (and still are), Bill Clinton was re-elected and the Yankees won the World Series. A group of experts met in Lund, Sweden, at an Ericsson plant to develop new short-range technologies. The group included professionals from Intel, Nokia, Ericsson, among others, according to the account of Jim Kardach, Intel’s former chief energy architect.

According to Kardach’s account, he and Ericsson’s Sven Mathesson had given a presentation on a business trip to Toronto, and that night they went to a pub. “Being a big history buff, we swapped stories with Sven. He knew a lot about radios, but not so much about history, but he had read Longships by Frans G. Bengtsson. In this book, a couple of Danish warriors travel the world in search of adventure, and the king during this time was Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson,” Kardach wrote.

The former Intel professional looked up the peculiar name and later discovered that Bluetooth united Denmark and Christianized the Danes. It seemed an ideal name for a technology that would link devices in short-range radio transmissions. But code names are just that and product names are often boring. The group eventually chose PAN, short for Personal Area Network.

Kardach recalled that “a week later, an emergency meeting was called. The other member companies looked to see if the word PAN was trademarked, thinking it was unlikely to happen. An Internet search produced tens of thousands of results, and no trademark search was conducted with the second alternative, Radio Wire. The only name we could start the launch with was Bluetooth.”

How does Bluetooth work?

Bluetooth sends information via ultra-high frequency radio waves and operates within the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands. It operates between the 2.4 and 2.485 GHz frequencies, as do many wifi devices, which can create interference when both technologies are running simultaneously.

While wifi works asymmetrically (with a singular access point and multiple devices), Bluetooth works symmetrically, with one device connected to another. While up to eight devices can be linked in a personal area network (PAN), in the case of smartphones, it usually involves connecting two headsets or a speaker.

Unlike wifi, Bluetooth connections also do not need a data packet to operate, because it does not require any service to transmit information. Bluetooth is exclusively a data transmission between devices, with no intermediaries.

It typically operates over short distances to save power. Although it is possible to operate over a range of 200 meters, this is not very common, as most devices usually operate within 10 meters of each other.

To avoid eavesdropping, Bluetooth uses adaptive frequency hopping spread spectrum, which automatically changes the radio frequency up to 1,600 times per second. Transmitted data is divided into packets and then sent over randomly selected channels to avoid busy ones. This is an aspect that has been improved through successive generations of Bluetooth technology.

What does Bluetooth use?

Although originally designed for a specific purpose, today Bluetooth is used in all kinds of devices to send data over short distances. Your speaker or wireless headset communicates with your phone or a home control center using Bluetooth technology. If your car is recent, it probably offers this connectivity for the sound system.

Most laptops are equipped with Bluetooth to facilitate the connection of wireless peripherals such as keyboards, mice and, in some cases, printers and scanners. Desktop computers sometimes have it as well, but will most likely require a USB dongle or adapter.

Game consoles use this technology for wireless connections, but only the PS4 supports third-party Bluetooth devices natively.

Recently, internet of things (IoT) devices have started to support this technology. Keeping them connected to a central hub or mobile device can be a low-power way. However, they are likely to be connected to your wifi network, especially if they are powered through a power outlet.

Bluetooth versions

Bluetooth was conceptually conceived in the late 1980s to create wireless headsets, but did not materialize until 1994.

Bluetooth 1.0 was reworked as 1.0a and 1.0b in 1999 to correct minor problems, and again as version 1.0b + CE in 2000. The first Bluetooth-equipped cell phones, PC cards and laptops arrived that same year. More products would follow in the following years, including the long-awaited headsets that had inspired its development.

The Bluetooth 2.0 standard arrived in 2004 and introduced improved data rates, which boosted transfer rates to 3 megabits per second. It also reduced power requirements, an ongoing goal for the next generations.

Bluetooth 3.0 improved speeds again in 2009: it improved rates to 24 megabits per second. However, both this version and its successor, Bluetooth 4.0, took advantage of the 802.11 standard (typically used in wifi) for faster transfers.

The major upgrade came with version 4.2: Bluetooth Low Energy. Today, most smartphones support the standard and it allows for similar coverage and bandwidth, and also significantly reduced the power requirements to transmit data, by 50 to 10,000 percent, depending on the type of use. This was designed not only to reduce the Bluetooth demands of controlled devices, but also to make it easier for speakers, fitness watches and other smart devices to run longer between charges.

Bluetooth 5 arrived in 2016 with improved security and greater speed and range flexibility. Bluetooth 5.1 was introduced in late January 2019 and added a feature to detect the location of devices, which would also serve to display relevant content on information screens in public spaces.

Bluetooth launched version 5.2 in January 2020. This includes LE Audio running on Bluetooth LBE, Isochronous Channels, Power Controls and Enhanced Attribute Protocol.

One of the basic principles of Bluetooth technology is that all are backward compatible. Any modern Bluetooth device, regardless of the version it supports, will also recognize devices using earlier versions.