Using Bluetooth Technology in a Demanding Environment where Reliability, Robustness and Interoperability are Key Success Factors

Using wireless radio technologies in a demanding industrial or medical environment requires paying careful attention to the needs of the application. For instance, applications that are considered not mission critical include the use of Bluetooth for device configuration and maintenance. Applications that are considered more or less critical include the use of Bluetooth to transfer live process information between different parts of an industrial / medical system. This white paper covers the use of Bluetooth in mission critical industrial and medical applications and discusses these applications from the viewpoint of Bluetooth architecture and conducted studies on Bluetooth reliability. For these mission critical applications, radio link reliability is very important in order to fulfill the high demands on deterministic behavior and real-time performance. Important issues to be addressed include interference with other Bluetooth nodes, coexistence with other radio standards like Wireless LAN (WLAN) IEEE 802.11 b, g, n and potential noise from other radiating sources like certain types of equipment such as industrial devices, medical devices or commercial devices like microwave ovens. If interference occurs it can affect the connection robustness. With several wireless standards operating in the 2.4GHz ISM band Bluetooth has adopted several robust features.