The Wireless Office
Imagine a modern day office with various hi-tech, yet common electronic devices.
The first thing an office should have are the basic essentials: a computer, keyboard, mouse, printer and phone. Next, lets say there is a Headset that works with the phone.
Now, lets make this office a little more exciting by adding some fun "toys", like a BlackBerry, a digital camera and an MP3 player.
So, we now have a pretty good picture of the office and the various devices in it.
Every device is connected, or is capable of being connected to at least one other device. For example, the keyboard and mouse have to connect to the computer and the PDA has the option to connect to the computer.
Just imagine if all these devices used cables to connect to one another. The office would have cables running everywhere and we'd be left with a big, tangled mess.
Now imagine all of these devices use Bluetooth technology to connect to one another instead. The result: no more cables and no more mess.
Suppose the Bluetooth enabled printer comes with a Bluetooth Computer Adapter that plugs into the computer's universal serial bus (USB) port. The company that manufactured the printer and computer adapter programmed each device with the same Bluetooth profiles.
Bluetooth profiles are used by devices to instruct them on how to use the Bluetooth technology. Profiles define the application(s) of Bluetooth technology (To learn more about profiles, click: Bluetooth Profiles).
After the printer is turned on, it transmits a signal, which looks for a response from other Bluetooth enabled devices with the same profile(s). Since the USB adapter shares the same profile(s), it responds and a small network (AKA: Piconet) is created.
Since this piconet is established between devices with the same specific profiles, the signals sent by other devices with different profiles, like the headset, will be ignored. All the other Bluetooth devices in the room establish similar piconets that are all separated from one another based on the specific profile(s) they use.
Our "dream" office now has several different piconets operating simultaneously, and each one knows which Bluetooth devices to communicate with and which signals to ignore. It is highly unlikely that any two piconets will interfere with one anther because each is changing its frequencies all of the time.
