Interactive Pervasive Wireless Services over GPRS and Bluetooth

The large scale adoption of mobile phones brings a merging mobile commerce market. Most wireless applications are based on GPRS to provide services in wide areas, while some location based services are based on Bluetooth to enable mobile users to enjoy proximity services. However, very few systems marry the two communication technologies together to provide a more pervasive wireless system with which mobile users can enjoy PAN-WAN wireless services. In this paper, we present a new hybrid interactive wireless system over both GPRS and Bluetooth called Lykii. The system has three layers: backend servers deployed in data center, Bluetooth stations installed hotspots in city public areas and mobile software clients installed in mobile phones on user side. In the hotspots, mobile users can connect to the Bluetooth stations over Bluetooth which is fast and free by using the mobile software clients, and when they are out of hotspots, they still can access the remote server through GPRS. In this system, several interesting applications are implemented by taking advantages of the two communication technologies. The architecture and implementation of this system are presented in details as well as discussions on business potentials of this hybrid wireless system over both GPRS and Bluetooth.