Bluetooth

• The efforts to develop an integrated voice/data home

wireless network started in 1998, when two working groups
began establishing industry standards in this area: the
Home RF Working Group (HRFWG) and the Bluetooth
Special Interest Group (SIG).
• Bluetooth technology was a spin-off of an internal Ericsson
project on wireless connectivity.
• Understanding that it would be the best way to make the
technology successful, Ericsson made Bluetooth available to
the rest of the industry. Consequently, along with Nokia,
IBM, Intel, and Tobisha, Ericsson founded Bluetooth.
• In addition to these two groups, a company named Home
Wireless Network (HWN) debuted proprietary home
wireless products in January 1999.
• HWN, with Lucent as its major investor, is targeting home
and small businesses, offering integrated voice and data
products.
• As data and voice merge in the everyday lives of
people, an integrated cordless system based on the
Bluetooth technology should facilitate access to
voice and data.
• It should also stir the growth of cordless phones,
and expand to small office applications. Bluetooth
operates in the 2.4-2.483 GHz ISM band.
• It utilizes fast-frequency hopping with spread-
spectrum techniques, whereby packets are
delivered in specified time slots at up to 723.2 Kbps.
• Bluetooth units (such as mobile handsets, PCs,
PDAs, printers, and so on) can be connected
through the Bluetooth radio link to form a piconet
in the office environment.
• Figure 24.5 illustrates the Bluetooth protocol
stack.
• A host controller interface is defined, which
provides higher-layer protocols and a
command interface to control the baseband
and link manager, and to access hardware
status and control registers.
• The Bluetooth protocols are described as
follows.
 Bluetooth Core Protocols
• These include Bluetooth RF, baseband, Link Manager Protocol (LMP),
Logical Link and Control Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP) and Service
Discovery Protocol (SDP).
• The physical links can be synchronous connection-oriented (SCO) or
asynchronous connectionlees (ACL).
• Both SCO and ACL can be encrypted, and are supported with FEO
and CRC error correction.
• The SCO packets are used to deliver both audio and data while the
ACL packets are used for data only.
• The baseband enables the physical RF link between Bluetooth units.
• Inquiry and paging procedures are used to synchronize the hopping
frequency and clock of Bluetooth units.
• The LMP performs authentication and encryption, and negotiates
baseband packet sizes to set up the connection between Bluetooth
units During the connection, LMP monitors the states of a Bluetooth
unit and controls the unit's power modes as well as duty cycles.
• In parallel with LMP L2CAP adapts upper-layer
protocols by providing connection and
connectionless data services.
• L2CAP performs multiplexing, segmentation,
reassembly, and group abstractions.
• In Bluetooth Specification 1.0, L2CAP supports
only ACL.
• SDP is used to query device information and
service characteristics before the link among
Bluetooth units is established.
Other Bluetooth Protocols
These include:
• Bluetooth Cable Replacement Protocol. A serial cable emulation
protocol called RFCOMM. RFCOMM emulates RS-232 control and
data signals over the Bluetooth baseband. RFCOMM provides
serial line transport capabilities for upper-level protocols.
• Telephony Control Protocols. Include Telephony Control Protocol-
Binary (TCS-BIN), and AT-commands. TCS-BIN is used to define
mobility management and video/data call control.
• Bluetooth AT-commands are based on ITU-T Recommendation
V.250, GSM 07.07 and the commands used for fax services.
• Adopted Protocols. Divided into two stacks:
– Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). Used to support WAP (through UDP) and
TCP.
– Object Exchange Protocol (OBEX). A session protocol, which provides
the same basic functionality as HTTP, but in a lightweight manner. vCard
and vCalendar are content formats transferred by OBEX in Bluetooth.
vCard defines the format for electronic business cards. vCalendar
defines personal calendar entries and scheduling information.
Bluetooth Usage Models
• Bluetooth supports several usage models, each of which
utilizes a profile to define the protocols that support it.
• The list of usage models includes:
– File transfer supported by OBEX and SDP. Used, for example, to
exchange electronic business cards.
– Internet bridge supported by AT-commands, PPP, and SDP.
Provides, for example, a wireless Internet connection to a PC.
– LAN access supported by IP and SDP. Provides wireless LAN
access.
– Synchronization supported by OBEX (through.Ir Mobile
Communications) and SDP. Provides personal information
management (PIM) synchronization between two Bluetooth units
(e.g., PDAs); the synchronized information includes phone book,
calendar, message, and similar services.
– Three-in-One Phone, supported by TCS-BIN, SDP, and audio.
Allows a handset to function like a cordless phone, a walkie-talkie,
or a cellular phone.