2017611 GenericAttributeProfile(GATT)Specification|BluetoothTechnologyWebsite

speci cations

Generic Attributes (GATT) and the Generic Attribute Pro le

The Generic Attributes (GATT) de ne a hierarchical data structure that is exposed to connected Bluetooth LE devices.

GATT pro les enable extensive innovation while still maintaining full interoperability with
otherBluetoothdevices. The pro le describes a use case, roles and general behaviors based on the GATT
functionality. Services are collections of characteristics and relationships to other services that encapsulate the
behavior of part of a device. This also includes hierarchy of services, characteristics and attributes used in the
attribute server.

GATT is built on top of the Attribute Protocol (ATT) (see Bluetooth Core System Architecture for block diagram
and explanations), which uses GATT data to de ne the way that two Bluetooth Low Energy devices send and
receive standard messages. Note that GATT is not used in Bluetooth BR/EDR implementations, which use only
adopted pro les.

GATT Pro le Hierarchy

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The Generic Attribute Pro le (GATT) procedures de ne standard ways that services, characteristics and their descriptors can be discovered and then used to allow

Bluetooth Low Energy devices to transfer data. The pro le describes a use case, roles and general behaviors based on GATT functionality.

The top level of the hierarchy is a pro le, which is composed of one or more services necessary to ful ll a use
case. A service is composed of characteristics or references to other services. A characteristic consists of a type
(represented by a UUID), a value, a set of properties indicating the operations the characteristic supports and a
set of permissions relating to security. It may also include one or more descriptorsmetadata or con guration
ags relating to the owning characteristic.

GATT groups these services to encapsulate the behavior of part of a device, and describes a use case, roles and
general behaviors based on the GATT functionality. This framework de nes procedures and formats of services
and their characteristics, including discovering, reading, writing, notifying and indicating characteristics, as well

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as con guring the broadcast of characteristics.

Client and Server Roles

GATT de nes client and server roles. GATT procedures can be considered to be split into three basic types:
Discovery procedures, Client-initiated procedures and Server-initiated procedures. The GATT server stores the
data transported over the ATT and accepts ATT requests, commands and con rmations from the GATT client.
The GATT server sends responses to requests and sends indications and noti cations asynchronously to the
GATT client when speci ed events occur on the GATT server. GATT also speci es the format of data contained
on the GATT server.

To see all the adopted GATT-based speci cations, visit the Adopted Speci cations page.

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