Consumer electronics application and coverage constraints using Bluetooth and proposed Bluetooth evolution technologies

This paper considers issues such as residential coverage and achievable bit rate using the Bluetooth personal area network (PAN) standard. Link budget analysis is performed by combining detailed link level physical layer simulations with site specific power predictions from a state-of-the-art indoor propagation model. Assuming a 1 mW transmit unit, coverage plots are generated at 2.4 GHz for an example single and multi-storey residential environment. The investigation considers Bluetooth data medium (DM) and data high (DH) packet types. Results for the transmission of symmetric asynchronous data link (ACL) packets are used to discuss the bit rate capabilities of various time-bounded and non-time bounded Bluetooth enabled consumer electronic devices. To meet the bit rate needs of future consumer electronic devices, QPSK, 16-QAM and 64-QAM are proposed as possible enhancements to the current GFSK mode. Using physical layer simulations, the coverage and data rate performance of these new modes are analysed and compared with those of standard Bluetooth. The use of linear receive architectures and coherent modulation, although adding significantly to the unit cost, is shown to significantly improve radio sensitivity. Results indicate that high bit rate QAM operation is now possible over an extended coverage area.