Bluetooth Goes Cellular by Tom Taulli and Dave Mock

Provided by Unstrung.com

With the slowdown in the economy, the blahs have set into the wireless industry. No hot new companies coming out of the IPO gates with exciting products/technology and very little differentiation between current young players. Everybody is playing it conservative and saying the same things…"we offer an end-to-end solution", "our application is platform agnostic", "blah blah blah". Well believe it or not there are still companies out there with novel approaches that set them apart in the wireless space. You just have to look in Israel.

Commil Ltd. is looking to make an impression in the Bluetooth community. The young company is working on a system that can network multiple Bluetooth "cells", so that a user can move around a larger area without having their connection drop out. Commil's patent-pending technology allows seamless handoff for both data and voice sessions between access points, enabling movement anywhere in a building with reliability and a higher bit-rate for a better user experience. We caught up with Commil's VP of Marketing, Amnon Steiner, to give us a sense of what they're about:

Q: What's the basis of you solution and what sorts of applications/environments do you see the greatest need for it (airports, campuses, etc.)?

A: The Bluetooth wireless technology started as a “cable replacement”. The Bluetooth standard does not support handoff when the user moves between access points. Applications of voice, telephony and video streaming may not be possible since the session is disconnected when the user moves. These are the types of applications that require Commil’s technology. Some examples:

- While walking in a shopping mall your Bluetooth-enabled PDA receives e-coupons and directs you to the store you are looking for.
- After purchasing a movie ticket using your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone or PDA, you can watch the movie trailer.
- Your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone becomes a cordless extension of your office desk phone.
- Arriving to the airport and receiving flight and gate information into your mobile phone or PDA without the need to stop in front of the monitors or to browse a remote web site over the cellular spectrum.

Q: Bluetooth has been subject to speculation about its adoption. Do you see some regions/countries embracing Bluetooth more than others?

A: We see that West-European countries embrace Bluetooth while the US is leaning more towards Wireless LAN (IEEE802.11). However, we should remember that Bluetooth is a much younger technology than 802.11 and it was initiated by European companies (Ericsson and Nokia), therefore, it is reasonable to expect it to be more popular in Europe.

Q: Aren't there roaming capabilities (node transfers) with other piconet technologies like 802.11?

A: IEEE 802.11 has roaming capabilities, however, very few manufacturers implemented the feature, since the standard is mainly used for laptop/computer connectivity, which is less likely to require mobility. The need for seamless handoff is critical in the small mobile devices such as phones and PDAs, but we do not see any technology (other than Bluetooth) planned to be incorporated in such small and low cost devices.

Q: What stage of development/deployment are you in with your solutions?

A: We are working on a prototype system that demonstrates our technology: The Commil server and access points will communicate with a standard Bluetooth device and perform seamless handoff when the device moves from one access point to another. We expect to demonstrate it in 4-6 weeks.

Q: How did your CeBIT show go? You weren't part of the Bluetooth demo that flopped, were you?

A: CeBIT was a very intensive show. We had a lot of visitors at our booth, many of which were interested in cooperation and even licensing of our technology.

I do not have first hand information on the reasons for the failure of the system that Lesswire tried to demonstrate, but I can attest that it did not work when I visited their booth. The main success of Bluetooth at CeBIT was the fact that every major company, and even small companies, exhibited at least one product with Bluetooth inside. You could see digital cameras, printers, PDAs, mobile phones, headsets and many others, all with Bluetooth wireless technology. The important issue is that all major companies have something to do with Bluetooth.

Q: What sorts of announcements should we expect to see from you in the near future?

A: The latest announcement was that Philips invested $1.5M in Commil. As for the future, I guess we will have to wait and see…

Q: Well, I had to try…