LTE

Bluetooth group ushers in updated Bluetooth 4.1.

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The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the regulatory body responsible for the standard, announced on Wednesday its release of an updated version of the specification, Bluetooth 4.1. This is the first new update to the standard in nearly four years. Bluetooth has become a familiar and fundamental word in the vocabulary of device interconnectedness and “Internet of Things,” as the technology standard that enables information exchange between wireless devices. Announced by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Bluetooth 4.1 brings improvements, enablements, and developer support benefits. Also on Wednesday, Suke Jawanda, Bluetooth SIG chief marketing officer , blogged “Improving Usability extends the brand promise to consumers with an ‘it just works’ experience. This spec is engineered with several new features to make it work seamlessly with popular cell technologies like LTE, maintain connections with less frequent manual reconnection, and deliver a more efficient data exchange.”

For device users, Bluetooth 4.1 will show improvements in the form of easier connections. Devices can reconnect automatically when in proximity of one another. The user leaves the room and come back to find the two devices that were recently used reconnected without any intervention.

Device users can also expect improved data transfer. Data-gathering sensors in devices while on a bike ride, run, or swim, will transfer that data more efficiently when the consumer returns home.

For developers, Bluetooth 4.1 will support Bluetooth Smart products and solutions with “dual-mode topology” and “link-layer topology” software features. What that means is that application developers as well as product developers can think about creating products that take on multiple roles. With 4.1, one can think about behavior as a Bluetooth Smart peripheral and also as a Bluetooth Smart hub. A smart watch can behave as a data-gathering information from a heart rate monitor, but at the same time behave as a peripheral to a smartphone, showing notifications from the phone. According to SIG, “As the Bluetooth Smart ecosystem grows, the Bluetooth SIG expects more solutions to play both a hub and peripheral role. Bluetooth 4.1 delivers this type of flexibility to Bluetooth Smart devices and application developers.”

The group regards the new update as “an important evolutionary update to the wireless standard.” The last update in 2010 was instead considered as a revolutionary update in the introduction of Bluetooth Smart (Low Energy) technology. “Bluetooth Smart technology put us on a rocket ship of growth, with Bluetooth annual product shipment projections skyrocketing to more than 4.5 billion in the next five years,” said Jawanda.

To be sure, the standard for wireless interconnections has become a major presence in devices and services used every day. The Bluetooth SIG, a trade association, now counts over 20,000 member companies and oversees the development of Bluetooth specifications, and promotion and protection of the Bluetooth brand.

 

Why Apple Made Three iPhone 5 Models and What That Means For You.

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Apple has finally made its latest iPhone compatible with LTE networks. But it’s not all good news for the company’s customers. Due to 4G LTE fragmentation, Apple has had to make three different models of the iPhone 5. Where the iPhone 4S was a dual GSM/CDMA device, meaning one model for all carriers, the LTE-enabled iPhone 5 comes in two separate GSM models and one CDMA model. This means that consumers will have fewer choices when switching carriers, and that LTE access will be limited when traveling abroad.

Since carriers utilize different radio frequencies (also known as frequency bands) for LTE service, Apple has had to diversify its iPhone 5 portfolio. This largely has to do with the fact that 4G LTE is still in the early stages of development, compared to more mature networks like 2G and 3G. It’s a messy situation that Android handset makers like Samsung and HTC have been dealing with when it comes to their 4G LTE devices. For example, the Samsung Galaxy SIII comes in nine model variants, five of which are specific to North American carriers.

The three iPhone 5 models include: GSM model A1428 that supports LTE Bands 4 and 17; GSM model A1429 that supports LTE Bands 1, 3, and 5; and CDMA model A1429 that supports LTE Bands 1, 3, 5, 13, and 25.

In layman’s terms, this means an iPhone 5 user who wanted to jump from, say, AT&T to Verizon or vice versa, would have to buy a new handset, since AT&T runs a GSM network and Verizon is CDMA. And where owners of GSM handsets previously enjoyed wide compatibility with foreign networks, LTE fragmentation means that AT&T customers using an iPhone 5 in Europe, for example, won’t be able to take advantage of LTE speeds while abroad and will instead get kicked down to the 3G network.

“With 2G, pretty much everything has matured to use four main frequency bands,” IHS analyst Francis Sideco told Wired. “And the components have matured enough so there are a lot of multiband components out there. 3G is in a similar state, where the bands are known and components are becoming more integrated with multiband capability…. When we get to LTE, neither one of those things is true. The bands that are being selected by operators globally have not coalesced, nor are the components mature enough where they are integrating to the same degree as far as multiband capability.”

The GSM A1428 model appears to be made specifically for AT&T, which is the only carrier that uses both LTE Bands 4 and 17. It will also support T-Mobile’s U.S. LTE network as well as several Canadian networks. But don’t expect any LTE service outside of North America — currently no carriers in other countries use Bands 4 or 17. Even though GSM networks are more common worldwide, this particular iPhone 5 model is not a global phone when it comes to LTE support. Instead, Apple has opted to make a second GSM model for other countries. Model A1429 supports the three more common LTE Bands in places like Asia and Europe, but none for North America use.

The CDMA phone, however, is more of a global device. It supports the same three LTE bands as the non-U.S. GSM phone, as well as the two main bands used by U.S. carriers Verizon and Sprint. Another benefit to the CDMA phone is that it supports GSM/EDGE radio frequencies, while the GSM phones do not support CDMA frequencies. Unfortunately, that GSM support is limited to international use for stateside customers. What is oddly missing from all three phones is LTE support for a large portion of Western Europe, which uses LTE Band 7.

When asked why Apple chose to make two GSM phones, instead of one that could work globally with LTE networks, Sideco pointed to the bands each of the phones supports. It could be that there are no multiband components for AT&T frequencies (Bands 4 and 17), while there were for Verizon and Sprint’s LTE networks. We won’t, however, know for sure until we get a peek inside the iPhone 5 models.

“After we’ve done a teardown and know exactly which companies have been used for the different models, we’ll actually be able to provide more insight to what might have driven these decisions,” Sideco said. “It could come from many different factors.”

Source: wired.com