HomeRF Overview and Market Positioning
8 HomeRF Compared to Rival Technologies
8.1 Bluetooth
Bluetooth
is a code name adopted by a consortium of wireless manufacturers working
towards a global standard for wireless communication of data and voice.
The Bluetooth technology is based on a short-range radio link built into
small application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). It can support
both stationary and mobile communications and uses frequency hopping,
1,600 hops per second as opposed to 50 hops per second in HomeRF.
Bluetooth supports data transmissions between devices of up to 721 Kbps
and offers up to three voice channels. Bluetooth like HomeRF operates in
the 2.4 GHz band. Bluetooth technology enables a user to replace cables
between devices such as printers, fax machines, desktop computers and
peripherals, and a host of other digital devices. Furthermore, Bluetooth
technology can provide a connection between the ad hoc network and
existing data networks.
As claimed, Bluetooth technology is
designed for wireless personal area networks (WPANs), which are networks
of personal electronic devices in close proximity to each other. Bluetooth
technology is expected to become a major player in the wireless data
communications market because of simplicity and its support from large
companies. And Bluetooth members are encouraging vendors to incorporate
the technology into their products by waiving intellectual property
royalty fees.
8.2 Ethernet 802.11
802.11b is a wireless
Ethernet specification. 802.11b was originally designed to enable high
performance radio to support roaming in large offices or business campus
environments. 802.11b is quiet expensive compared to SWAP. It must be
remembered that 802.11b supports voice over Internet protocol. 802.11b
depends on a distributed contention based algorithm, which induces latency
in voice transmissions. Latency in voice transmissions is not a problem
with SWAP. 802.11b does not yet have complete telephone functionality.
Features like caller ID are not available. Unlike 802.11b, SWAP has a full
range of telephone functionality based on DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless
Telephony).
8.3 Interoperability
Several wireless technologies could
possibly survive the test of time. This will create many interoperability
problems. Some have even speculated that this may create a market for
black boxes that translate between standards. The cost of implementing RF
however is quiet high. For example, the cost of implementing RF in a
printer is $20 compared to $6 for infrared implementation. Figure 8.1
gives a perceived market positioning for the two technologies implicatly
mentioned in this section and HomeRF.
Figure 8.1: Market positioning:
Introduction | Working
Group | Vision | Technical
Specification | Software Architecture |
Security | Implementations | Rival
Technologies | Future
|
