Question Why can't I get a Bluetooth router?

[ultrarunner100]

Hey guys;
I've been having trouble with my Bluetooth devices. I have several audio devices and several Alexa devices running on Bluetooth.
One example is that my Windows 11 PC hijacks the WH-1000XM5 from the Pixel 6 to which it had been connected. The Sony Connect app running on the Pixel 6 (Android 13) had the 'connect to 2 devices simultaneously' switch in the OFF position.
I have also had trouble with the same combination of devices while the Sony Connect app was set to connect to 2 devices simultaneously.

It appears to me that Windows is the culprit here, but I thought of an idea that might solve all of my Bluetooth issues.
Buy a Bluetooth router. It would work just like a WiFi router, except it would handle BT packets instead of IP packets on the WiFi router.
I did a search on Amazon, figuring I'm going to be hit by a barrage of choices, ranging in price from $40 all the way to a super-deluxe Bluetooth Gateway for $499. But no! There were only various bluetooth devices, and WiFi routers, but there was not a single Bluetooth router for sale on Amazon!

I retreated to Google, searching for 'Bluetooth router'. The most useful site I found was this one:

This Bluetooth router connects to 22 devices from 1,000 feet

Surprisingly enough, Bluetooth has become one of the best methods for connecting smart devices. Internet of Things standards like Zigbee and Z-Wave still have plenty of issues, and WiFi, while popular, draws too much power to be effective for managing several smart devices. Meanwhile, most...

www.engadget.com

I apologize if the url in my link is considered cross-linking of forums, but I could not find a forum (in the sense that this is a forum) on that site.

I believe I might have found a few BT routers for commercial use, costing $500 and up, but nothing for personal/home use.

Ultrarunner

 

[bill001g]

Windows should not just connect to any bluetooth device that would be a security issue. At some time you must have paired the PC with the headset.

This is where you need to understand the details on how something like a router actually works to know why bluetooth can not function that way.

Bluetooth is pretty simple you need to think of it as a replacement for a piece of wire. It is even more simple than say a USB cable, USB cables you can plug into a hub type device. Bluetooth is purely a connection between 2 devices it does not have say the ability to connect 3 devices....although there are some bluetooth devices where you can have multiple connections the data always goes directly between device you can not send the data to one device and have it send it to another.

This is one of those that is how it works things. Now I guess if there was a need the group that defines bluetooth standards could come up with a methodology to allow something like a hub or router. I suspect there are other ways to solve these issues so the bluetooth advisory group doesn't think it is needed.

There might be some company that comes up with their own solution but it would be proprietary....kinda like MESH systems on wifi. There is no official standard for mesh so pretty much nothing works between vendors.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The reason you can't get a Bluetooth router is the protocol wasn't designed to do that. There's also the issue that a lot of the devices Bluetooth supports are specialized. For instance, while sure, Sony's headphones support connecting to two devices at once, it's mostly so you can pair the headphones to a primary device but still be able to listen to your phone for notifications or phone calls. Otherwise, mixing multiple sound sources is both cacophony and wasteful on processing.

Even if you had something like say a keyboard. If it could connect to multiple devices simultaneously, do you really want them all the receive the same inputs even though only one of them should?

This isn't unlike Ethernet, where devices that connect to them may have multiple things that could be the destination, such as data to store on a storage drive, or data to process into a video, or data that's an audio file.

 

[ultrarunner100]

Thanks guys;
I didn't quite understand how simple BT really is. I was thinking more along the lines of IP on WiFi.
The problem I have appears to be isolated to the Sony WH-1000XM5. I have it paired with both my Pixel 6 phone and my Asus Tuf Gaming X570+WiFi system.
I have read in a number of forums/blogs that Windows doesn't always 'play nice' with Bluetooth when using multipoint.
Perhaps Sony will release an updated software/firmware for the WH-1000XM5 that will correct this problem, but I'm not holding my breath.