How to enable high speed Bluetooth (3.0+HS or 4.0) in Android?

Question

So I have a BT client and a server application on two Bluetooth 4.0 android phones. The server waits for a connection via

BluetoothServerSocket serverSocket = mBluetoothAdapter.listenUsingRfcommWithServiceRecord(SDP_NAME, UUID.fromString(SDP_UUID));

and the client connects to it via

socket = device.createRfcommSocketToServiceRecord(UUID.fromString(SDP_UUID));

Then, using a AsyncTask, I am sending data in an endless loop from the client to the server.

byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
outputStream.write(buffer);

I calculated the speed and only got around 230KByte/s, which is exactly the 2,1 MBit/s that Bluetooth EDR offers. How to I send the data via Bluetooth HS (24 MBit/s)?

Answer 1

BT 3.0+HS is a scheme where the high rates are achieved by actually using Wifi physical layer. So it only works if you have the right kind of BT/Wifi combo chips that support it, which isn't really very common. Having a 4.0 device does not mean it does 3.0+HS, it just means it can do BT Low Energy, which is low data rate.

Answer 2

I understand that Google has not opened up the API's required to drive the function built in the 4.0 chips. Since the functionality works on laptops and various Windows OS's maybe the mobile Window OS is closer or capable of operating such with a software patch. I think the priority for Google is to work on low battery before HS.

Also I think that Wireless operators were not keen on allowing high speed tethering for free, which has killed the software development efforts.