WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, three major technologies covered in one article!

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, I believe everyone is familiar with these three words. We use Wi-Fi to surf the Internet, use Bluetooth headphones to listen to music, and use NFC to pay...

Some people always ask, what is the difference between these three technologies? Which one is the best? Or is it a three-way split? After all, none of them has been eliminated after so many years of development.

Today, follow the document master to learn about the advantages of each of these three technologies!

WiFi

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity), also known as "mobile hotspot", is the most widely used wireless network transmission technology today.

Wi-Fi technology converts wired network signals into wireless signals, forming a wireless local area network and connecting devices within the local area network.

For example, if we transmit radio waves through a wireless router, we can connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi within the effective area covered by the radio waves. Now almost all smartphones, tablets and laptops are equipped with Wi-Fi modules.

Wi-Fi can transmit a large amount of information, is easy to use, and has a long range (about 10 m to 100 m). It is mainly used in SOHO (Small Office, Home Office), home wireless networks, and buildings or places where it is inconvenient to install cables, such as airports, hotels, shopping malls, etc., which can save a lot of costs required for laying cables.

In recent years, due to the development of smart devices, Wi-Fi has long been closely related to our daily lives. Some people even list Wi-Fi, water, and air as the three essential elements of survival for contemporary young people.

Since its advent in the 1990s, Wi-Fi has been widely used and developed, its standards are constantly being updated, and its transmission speed is also constantly improving.

In the early days, Wi-Fi operated at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. As the amount of data transmitted gradually increased, the 6 GHz frequency band was added to the latest Wi-Fi 7, which gave Wi-Fi greater transmission capacity. The following table lists the detailed information of each version of Wi-Fi.

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Bluetooth

Bluetooth, which was born in May 1998, is a low-power, low-cost short-range (generally within 10 meters) wireless communication technology. Bluetooth can effectively simplify the communication between mobile communication terminal devices and improve data transmission efficiency.

The essence of Bluetooth is to establish a universal short-range wireless interface for the communication environment between fixed devices or mobile devices, combining communication technology with computer technology, so that various devices can communicate with each other in a short range without being connected by wires or cables.

The operating frequency band of Bluetooth is 2.4 GHz (2.4 GHz~2.48 GHz). Since the 2.4 GHz band is an ISM (Industry, Science, Medicine) band that is open to the public all over the world, this band is very crowded.

In order to minimize mutual interference with other signals, Bluetooth uses frequency hopping technology. Frequency hopping technology divides the frequency band into several frequency hopping channels. In one connection, the radio transceiver continuously "hops" from one channel to another according to a certain pattern.

Only when the sender and receiver communicate according to this rule, other signals cannot interfere according to the same rule, so Bluetooth has strong security and anti-interference capabilities.

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Nowadays, Bluetooth is not only used in our daily life (Bluetooth headsets, Bluetooth mouse, Bluetooth keyboard, etc.), but is also widely used in automotive, industrial and medical fields, such as in-car Bluetooth entertainment systems, Bluetooth monitoring of CNC machine tools, Bluetooth intensive care units, etc.

Over the years, Bluetooth has gone through multiple versions, each with different transmission rate requirements, but they all operate in the 2.4 GHz frequency band and maintain compatibility with previous versions, ensuring that devices of different versions can communicate with each other.

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NFC

NFC (Near Field Communication) is an emerging technology developed based on contactless radio frequency identification (RFID) technology combined with wireless interconnection technology.

Devices using NFC technology (such as mobile phones) can exchange data when they are close to each other. It is often used in scenarios such as mobile payment, electronic ticketing, access control, and identity recognition.

NFC uses two-way identification and connection, is suitable for communication within a distance of 20 cm, operates at a frequency of 13.56 MHz, and has transmission rates of 106 kbit/s, 212 kbit/s, 424 kbit/s, and 848 kbit/s.

In order to be compatible with contactless smart cards, the NFC standard specifies a flexible gateway system, which is divided into three working modes: point-to-point communication mode, reader/writer mode and NFC card emulation mode.

• Peer-to-peer mode: Two NFC devices can exchange data. For example, two mobile phones with NFC function can use NFC to wirelessly connect and exchange data.
• Card reader mode: NFC devices can be used as contactless readers and writers. For example, mobile phones with NFC function turned on can read and write bus card information, recharge balance, etc.
• Card simulation mode: Simulates an NFC-enabled device as a tag or contactless card. For example, an NFC-enabled mobile phone can be read as an access card.

NFC only supports short-range communication and is not as widely used as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. However, NFC is highly secure, does not require pre-pairing, can achieve two-way information exchange, and is simple to operate. These features mean that NFC will eventually usher in its own era, and mobile payment is considered to be the most promising application scenario for NFC.

Three-part world, each with its own advantages

After reading the above content, I believe everyone has a certain understanding of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC. The following table compares the three technologies.

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In fact, there is no difference between the three technologies in terms of superiority or inferiority. Each of them has its own advantages. So far, no technology can combine high transmission rate, long transmission distance, high security, low power consumption and low cost.

We choose the right technology based on different application scenarios, such as transmitting large amounts of data through Wi-Fi, connecting various devices with Bluetooth, and using NFC for mobile payment and identity recognition...

Therefore, these three technologies are the best for us.