Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Bluetooth in
Wireless Communication

Fahad Aziz

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Index
•Introduction
•History
•Requirements
•Architecture
•Network Topology
•Baseband State Machine
•Link Management
•Host Controller Interface
•Software Protocols
•Logical Link Control & Adapter Protocol

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Introduction
• Open Standard for short range wireless connectivity

• Originally intended to replace the cable(s) connecting

portable and/or fixed electronic devices

• It is a radio frequency technology utilizing the unlicensed

2.5 Ghz industrial, scientific and medical band

• Applications of Bluetooth are home networking and home

appliances of future e.g. smart appliances, heating systems
and entertainment devices

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

History
• The technology was born in 1994.
• The first version was released July 1999.
• The Bluetooth name comes from the Danish
Viking Harald Blåtand.
• 1998 Intel, Ericsson, IBM, Nokia, and Toshiba
formed the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.
• December 1999 Add 3Com, Microsoft, Lucent
and Motorola.
• To date, 800 companies world wide are
members of the Bluetooth SIG

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Why Bluetooth?
– Cable replacement between devices.
– Supported by major companies.
– Open Specification
– Capable of handling both voice and data
simultaneously
– Low power consumption & slow transmission rate
– Connection can be initiated without user interaction.
– Devices can be connected to multiple devices at the
same time.

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Architecture
Bluetooth link control hardware

One chip & BaseBand module

or (that implements the RF,
Radio module baseband and link manager)

– Handles radio transmission and reception

– Accomodates digital signal processing for the
basedband protocol.
– Functions include establishing connection, support for
asynchronous/synchronous links, error correction and
authentication.

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Network Topologies
• Bluetooth devices are organized into groups, called
piconets, that consist of one master and up to seven
active slave devices
• A device can belong to more than one piconets either
as a slave, or as a master
• Multiple piconets with overlapping coverage areas
form a scatternet

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Network Topologies
S Slave
M S
M Master
S M
S S
S

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Baseband State Machine

• Piconets can be static or formed dynamically as
devices movies in and out of range of one another
• A devices leaves standby by
– Initiating
– receiving an inquiry
– a page command

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Baseband State Machine

STANDBY

Inquiry
Page Page Scan Scan Inquiry

Master Slave Inquiry

Response Response Response

CONNECTION

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Baseband State Machine

Low-power States

Sniff: A master can communicate with devices in sniff

mode only during specific sniff-designated time slots

Hold: A slave does not receive any asynchronous

packets and listens only to determine if it should
become active again

Park: A device in park mode stops listening and also

gives up its active member address

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Baseband Links
• Responsible for channel coding/decoding,
timing and managing a Bluetooth link.
Master/slave
– Devices in a connection are either master or slave.
– Communication is only possible between a master
and its slaves.
– A master and the slaves are named piconets.
– Scatternet; multiple piconets connected together.

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Link Manager
Link Manager is responsible for controlling the
baseband state machine
• Handles Link setup
• Manage security (authetication and security services)
• Control (paging, changing slave modes and handling
required changes in master/slave roles)
• Also supervises link and control handling of multislot
packet

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Host Controller Interface

• Some link controller may include as HCI Layer above
the link Manager.
• Used to isolate the Bluetooth baseband and link
manager from a transport protocol e.g. USB
• Thus allowing standard interface to Bluetooth
hardware.
• Applications can use bluetooth hardware without any
low level hardware knowledge

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Software Protocols
Many Bluetooth protocols are implemented in software.
• L2CAP: Provides the interface to the link controller and
allows for interoperability between Bluetooth devices
• SDP: provides service discovery specific to Bluetooth
environment with out inhibiting the use of other service
discovery protocols
• RFCOMM: simple transport protocol providing serial
data transfer.
• TCS: Provided for voice and data call control, providing
group management, connectionless TCS etc

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ
 Bluetooth is Wireless Communication

Software Protocols
• OBEX: It is only connection oriented protocol and
offers three profiles. Can be used for synchronization
of phone books, calendars, messaging etc
• WAP: Specification outlines the interoperability
requirements for implementing this capability.

Fahad Aziz – EE 586 – Wireless Networking & Protocols - Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ