1.6 Applications and profiles
Looking back to Section 1.3, the Bluetooth specification aimed to produce convenient, reliable, resilient, cost effective, low power, short range voice and data communications. It has achieved all these, but what sort of applications does this enable?
At its most basic, Bluetooth wireless technology replaces a cable and untethers devices. This makes it suitable for short range connections between a variety of mobile devices such as:
Mobile cellular phone to Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) through an access point.
Mobile cellular phone to a notebook PC.
Mobile cellular phone to a headset.
LAN access points for laptops or palmtops.
Notebook, palmtop, or other Internet access device to the Internet via a PSTN access point or access module.
Communication between laptops and palmtops.
In addition to the core specification, which defines the Bluetooth wireless communications protocol, the Bluetooth specification includes a profiles document. Each profile describes how a particular application can be implemented, including which parts of the core Bluetooth protocol should be used to support the profile. Version 1.0 of the Bluetooth specification provides profiles for all of the connections listed above. The Bluetooth SIG continues to define profiles to support further applications.