This technology can replace Bluetooth

March 6, 2016

Is it time to replace Bluetooth with something better?

The Bluetooth has so far proven to be a very useful technology that helps to wirelessly connect devices at close distances with minimal power consumption. However, some are working on a newer Wi-Fi technology that will be able to replace it and have even lower power consumption.

Its name is Passive Wi-Fi and is designed to transmit data over short distances with a power consumption that will be 10.000 times less than that of Bluetooth LE and ZigBee (wireless technology used in smart homes). The new technology was developed by a team of scientists at the University of Washington, who will discuss their recent research at the 13th USENIX Symposium on Network Systems Design and Integration this March.

The main innovation in the use of the Passive Wi-Fi is the use of only one digital baseband on the chips of the Wi-Fi, while those used to date have both digital and analog RF circuits.

"The main idea, in terms of Passive Wi-Fi, is to use reflections to create "Wi-Fi signal "packets", said one of the University of Washington researchers explaining the technology in a video. "A device that is in operation creates the continuous RF wave of the signal. The baseband processor in the passive device selectively reflects this RF signal to create Wi-Fi packets that can be decoded on existing devices, including smartphones."

Don't expect this new technology to have the speeds of the familiar Wi-Fi of our home, as its speeds currently have a maximum transmission speed of 11Mbps. Of course, this is a very good speed that is much faster than the classic Bluetooth connections and can be used to connect the Internet of Things to the devices of the new smart homes and cars of our near future.

Either way, these devices will need a single way to communicate that doesn't need a lot of power but also doesn't have the limitations of today's traditional Bluetooth.

See below the video explaining how this technology works.