Live data from Hacker News

Wi-LE: Can WiFi replace Bluetooth? (2019) [pdf]

web.cs.ucla.edu

61–70 of 88 posts

Re: Wi-LE: Can WiFi replace Bluetooth? (2019) [pdf]

#61
post #4

I can see a reason to abandon BLE. Bluetooth is generally a bit problematic maybe due to is complexity. but “Bluetooth low energy” is perfect for what it is (a super slow short range wireless communication implementation).

The problem with BLE is they make huge Bluetooth standards but forget the things people will actually want. Their first revision was 20-23 byte packets. The first thing anyone looks for when doing BLE is “how to send larger data”. BLE 4.2 and packet length extension helped this but it’s still pretty rough because you aren’t promised any specific MTU size by spec, just hope you can the packet size you need on connecti…

Any advice on how to start messing around with BLE? Is there a good adapter to buy for packet sniffing and whatnot?

I have a new interest in BLE on account of myself recently becoming bluetooth enabled.

Re: Wi-LE: Can WiFi replace Bluetooth? (2019) [pdf]

#63

Yes, or, at least it has been used to do so. Microsoft's xbox 360/xbox one USB controller adapter is actually a standard wifi adapter with a custom firmware. Source: https://github.com/medusalix/xow#how-it-works

That's only for the xbox one; the 360 was very nearly the only implementation of the wireless USB standard.

I've owned both adapters, the Xbox 360 adapter was significantly more reliable, and the Xbox One adapter has weird latency and handshake issues.

Re: Wi-LE: Can WiFi replace Bluetooth? (2019) [pdf]

#65
post #18

What I’d love to see is my Mac be able to connect my Zoom or Teams meetings to my AirPods via my iPhone (on wifi) so that I can freely run to the kitchen without losing Bluetooth connection.

Tangential, but I am amazed by the Bluetooth range I get out of my AirPod pro and iPhone 12. What the hell are they doing? My laptop doesn’t even get to 1/4 of the range. I’ve walked into a vault (like a bank vault) with my phone outside of it, and the music never stopped. I’ve walked a good 20ft and everything was still smooth.

Your music had probably been buffered.

Re: Wi-LE: Can WiFi replace Bluetooth? (2019) [pdf]

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangential, but I am amazed by the Bluetooth range I get out of my AirPod pro and iPhone 12. What the hell are they doing? My laptop doesn’t even get to 1/4 of the range. I’ve walked into a vault (like a bank vault) with my phone outside of it, and the music never stopped. I’ve walked a good 20ft and everything was still smooth.

Your music had probably been buffered.

And I just said a silly thing. It's Bluetooth, not Wifi we are talking about.

Re: Wi-LE: Can WiFi replace Bluetooth? (2019) [pdf]

#67
I can’t wait to get rid of Bluetooth for its issues with range and badly implemented devices and software where pairing doesn’t “stick” for long. The only good thing is the energy consumption with BLE. Like USB 3.whatever and USB-C, Bluetooth is generally a pile of garbage standards in a pile of garbage standards with poor implementations. Some Apple devices seem to be doing better with Bluetooth. Elsewhere it’s a bag of hurt. But that’s purely anecdotal from my end.

Re: Wi-LE: Can WiFi replace Bluetooth? (2019) [pdf]

#68
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is usbip finally usable?

In my experience, no. I would really love for it to be a thing as it's perfect for sharing devices on your computer to containers or VMs (i.e. program and debug your ARM MCU with a complex embedded toolchain and programmer running in a simple docker container). But in my experience USB over IP is still kind of a "here's a bunch of kernel modules and not a lot of documentation; good luck on windows" stage.

Sad, that was my experience too a few years back.

Re: Wi-LE: Can WiFi replace Bluetooth? (2019) [pdf]

#69
post #33
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Teams iOS app does audio hand-off really well in my experience. Have you tried that?

I haven't - but I want to use my desktop for the camera and viewing shared screen as much as possible, I just don't like missing something if I have to step away. As it is my Airpods ALMOST reach to the kitchen, just as I open the fridge they disconnect. And they don't reconnect until I'm very close (though I suspect this is because they decide to connect to my phone). Now that I think about it I should just join the…

Teams does this. Join call from phone. Then join from computer. Computer will ask if transfer or join w/o audio. Choose join w/o audio.

Best way to be on calls. Need to walk around no problem. But can still see full screen when desired. Also can work if your home internet is spotty and you transfer to phones internet service.

Post reply on HN