Bluetooth and 802.11b

[John Griffiths]

how many wireless nodes does a small apartment need???

At 03:42 PM 11/29/02 +1100, Bob Edwards wrote:
>I operate both in close proximity with no noticable effects. However, a
study 
>was done in which a bluetooth and an 802.11b card were located in adjacent 
>PCMCIA slots and apparently the throughput on both went to near zero (I
don't 
>have the reference here). I suspect that the different transmitters were 
>flooding the others receivers.
>
>Bluetooth is a Frequency Hopper, switching 1600 times/sec in 1MHz bands
(79 in 
>all). 802.11b is Direct Sequence and occupies a 22MHz chunk of bandwidth.
>
>In theory the DS nature of 802.11b should make it to some extent immune from 
>the effects of the 1MHz-wide bursts of noise from Bluetooth.
>
>Also, Bluetooth has a range of about 5m, so won't even be seen by 802.11b 
>devices operating more than that distance away (this is a simplification -
it 
>is likely that the 802.11b receivers are more sensitive than the average 
>bluetooth receiver). However, bluetooth may well be affected to some
extent by 
>a nearby 802.11b transmitter which will be relatively powerful.
>
>So, this is not a clear answer and depends upon many factors. Personally, I 
>believe that Bluetooth is here to stay, and if not, then something else will 
>step into its place. It is even an IEEE standard now (802.15).
>
>Cheers,
>
>Bob Edwards.
>
>Dale Shaw wrote:
>> What's the reality when it comes to Bluetooth interfering with 802.11b?
>> 
>> Scenario: single WLAN in a small apartment with a few 802.11b nodes and
>> a couple of Bluetooth devices. Any _noticeable_ performance degradation?
>> Is it worse if I've got a notebook with a wireless NIC and a Bluetooth
>> transmitter?
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Dale
>
>
>