Bluetooth

What is
Bluetooth ?

Bluetooth is an open specification for transmitting of data

and voice by using radio frequencies.
It provides short range wireless communication up to 1
Mbps over a distance of up to 10 metres (30 feet)
It comprises of a hardware component and a software
component.
The name Bluetooth is derived from the name of the king of
Denmark, Harald Bluetooth ruled in 10th century.
Harald Bluetooth is famous for uniting the Scandinavian
people during the 10th century.

Introduction

Bluetooth is designed to provide wireless interconnection

between mobile devices like
Personal digital assistants (PDAs)
Mobile phones
Laptops
PCs
Printers
Digital cameras
Bluetooth LAN is an ad-hoc Network, that is the Network is
formed spontaneously.
The devices are sometimes called gadgets.

Who Started Bluetooth?

Ericsson Mobile Communication
Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)
5 founding members
Ericsson, Nokia, IBM, Intel & Toshiba
Promoters Group
3COM
Lucent
Microsoft
Motorola

Benefits of Bluetooth
- Freedom from cables and wires
- Does not require line of sight, unlike infrared technology
- Consumes less power .
- Connects devices directly on a peer-to-peer basis
No need for fixed networks connections.
- Has the support of Industry leaders like

IBM

Microsoft

HP

3Com

Nokia

Motorola

Limitation

The Bluetooth air interface is based on a nominal antenna power of

0dBm (1mW) with extensions for operating at up to 20dBm (100mW)
worldwide.

The nominal link range is 10 centimetre to 10 meters

It can be extended to more than 100 meters by increasing the transmit

power (using the 20dBm option).

Network Architecture

Bluetooth defines 2 types of Network Architecture

Piconet
Scatternet

Piconet

Active Slaves
Master
Standby Slaves

Active Slaves

Scatternet

Master
Standby Slaves
Parked Slaves

Piconet

Bluetooth stations connect to each other in piconet.

Piconet or a small net can have upto 8 stations .

which are formed by a master devices simultaneously

connecting up to seven Slave devices.
All the slave synchronise their clock and hopping with the
master.
Communication between the master and the slave can be

one to one

one to many.

Piconet

The Bluetooth devices are symmetric , any Bluetooth

device can become a master or slave device.
The piconet configuration is determined at the time of
formation.
The connecting device will become the master.
The "master/slave swap" function allows the roles to be
reversed.
In addition to the seven slaves there can be up to 255
parked nodes.

Scatternet

Multiple Piconets with overlapping coverage areas forms a

scatternet
Each piconet with only one master.
Slaves may participate in different piconets on a time
division multiplex basis.
Individual piconets hop differently, different piconets can
simultaneously use different hop channels.
A slave in one piconet can be the master in other piconet

Forming a Piconet

To form a piconet, the Bluetooth devices needs to understand two

parameters:

The hopping pattern of the device it wishes to connect

The phase within that pattern.

Bluetooth devices each have a unique "Global ID" that is used to

create a hopping pattern.
In forming a piconet, the master radio shares its Global ID with the
other devices,

The other devices then become slaves

All the devices are with the correct hopping pattern.

The master also shares its clock offset with the slaves in the
piconet, providing the offset into the hopping pattern.

Stations not connected to the piconet exist in "Standby" mode.

In this mode, the stations are listening for other stations to find
them ("Inquire") and/or are listening for a request to form a
piconet ("Page").
When a station issues an Inquire command, listening station
will respond with their Frequency Hop Synchronisation packet.
The FHS packet contains Global ID and clock offset providing
the inquiring station with a list of Bluetooth station in the area.

Slave Modes
The slave can be in following modes of operation:
Active:
The slave actively participate in the piconet by listening, transmitting and receiving
packets.
The master periodically transmits to the slaves for to maintain synchronization
Sniff:
The slave listens on specified slots for its messages.
It can operate in a reduced-power status the rest of the time.
The master designates a reduced no. of time slots for transmitting to a specific
slave
Hold:
The device can participate only in SCO packet exchanges and runs in
reduced-power status.
While it is no active, the device can participate in another piconet.
Park:
A low power mode with very little activity.
Used when a slave does not need to participate in a piconet, but still is retain as
part of it. The device is changing AM_ADDR PM_ADDR.
With this mode, a piconet may have more than 7 slaves.

Bluetooth Protocol Stack

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has developed

Protocol stack.
The Layer Structure does not follow the OSI
These specifications allow for developing interactive
services and applications.

Protocol Stack
Applications / Profiles
Service
Other
Discovery
Logical Link Control Adaptation Protocol
RF comm

Audio

Telephony

Link Manager
Baseband
Physical Radio

Control

Applications / Profiles
Other
Audio

Service
RF comm Telephony
Discovery
Control
L2 CAP
Link Manager
Baseband
Physical Radio

Baseband and Link control layers enable the physical RF link

between the Bluetooth devices to form a piconet.
They provide two kinds of physical links
Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO)
SCO is used for audio or data
Asynchronous Connectionless (ACL)
Only for Data

Applications / Profiles
Other
Audio

Service
RF comm Telephony
Discovery
Control
L2 CAP
Link Manager
Baseband
Physical Radio

Link Manager Protocol is responsible for the Link setup.

It is also responsible for security and authentication, encryption.
Logical Link Control and Application Layer (L2CAP) is responsible for

Multiplexing data from higher layers

Segmentation (converts between different packet sizes)
Reassembly of packets
Quality of Service

Applications / Profiles
Other
Audio

Service
RF comm Telephony
Discovery
Control
L2 CAP
Link Manager
Baseband
Physical Radio

Service Discovery Protocol (SDP)

It is responsible for discovery of services on the Bluetooth devices.
RFCOMM
This is the basis for the cable replacement usage of Bluetooth.
It is a simple transport protocol with additional provisions for emulating
the 9 circuits of RS 232 serial ports over L2CAP.

Applications / Profiles
Other
Audio

Service
RF comm Telephony
Discovery
Control
L2 CAP
Link Manager
Baseband
Physical Radio

Telephony Control Protocol Specification (TCS Binary)

Defines the call control signaling for the establishment of
speech and data calls between devices.

Security

Bluetooth security is divided into three modes

Security Mode 1
Non Secure
Security Mode 2
Enforce Service Level security
Security Mode 3
Enforce Link Level security
Initiates security procedures before the channel is established.
Authentication
Encryption
Key Management

Authentication (E1 algorithm)

Challenge/Response system
Encryption (privacy)
Encrypts data between two devices
Stream cipher with E0 algorithm
Key management and usage
Configurable Encryption key length (0-16 bytes)
Government export regulations
Radio negotiate key size
Key generation with E2-E3 algorithms
Authentication and Encryption keys

Bluetooth USB Adapter