There’s a fundamental problem with some new computers because the two
wireless systems available to connect them to devices such as modems and
printers interfere with each other. Both Bluetooth and IEEE-802.11, or “dot 11”,
work at 2.4 megahertz. Bluetooth devices talk directly to each other, hopping
frequencies to avoid interference from microwave ovens, while dot 11 routes data
through a local base station. The stronger dot 11 signal simply drowns out
Bluetooth. Lucent Technologies of New Jersey has developed a controller which
sits in the PC, forcing the different systems to take it in turns to transmit
(EP 1119137). This happens so fast that they seem to be working together.
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