What is bluetooth

Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras, and video game consoles over a secure, globally unlicensed short-range radio frequency

Why is it called Bluetooth?

Harald Bluetooth was king of Denmark in the late 900s. He managed to unite Denmark and part of Norway into a single kingdom then introduced Christianity into Denmark. He left a large monument, the Jelling rune stone, in memory of his parents. He was killed in 986 during a battle with his son, Svend Forkbeard. Choosing this name for the standard indicates how important companies from the Nordic region (nations including Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland) are to the communications industry, even if it says little about the way the technology works. One could say that there are 3 types of connections in Bluetooth, y y y a) Single-slave b) Multi-slave (up to 7 slaves on one master) c) Scatternet

Piconet:
A collection of devices connected via Bluetooth technology in an ad hoc fashion. A piconet starts with two connected devices, such as a portable PC and a mobile phone. The limit is set at 8 units in a piconet (thats why the required address-space is limited to 3 bits). All Bluetooth devices are peer units and have identical implementations. However, when establishing a piconet, one unit will act as a master for synchonization purposes, and the other unit(s) will be slave(s) for the duration of the piconet connection.

Scatternet:
Two or more independent and non-synchronized piconets that communicate with each other. A slave as well as a master unit in one piconet can establish this connection by becoming a slave in the other piconet. It will then relay communications between the piconets, if the need arises.

Master unit:
The device in a piconet whose clock and hopping sequence are used to synchronize all other devices in the piconet. The master also numbers the communication channels.

Slave units:

All devices in a piconet that are not the master (up to 7 active units for each master).

Mac address:
A 3-bit Media Access Control address used to distinguish between units participating in the piconet.

Parked units:
Devices in a piconet which are regularly synchronized but do not have MAC addresses. They are woken up by the Master with a beacon signal.

Sniff mode and hold mode:

Devices that are synchronized to a piconet, and which have temporarily entered power-saving modes in which device activity is lowered. They keep their MAC-addresses.

The Beacon-channel:
To support slaves, the Master establishes a beacon channel when one or more slaves are parked. This channel consists of one beacon slot, or a train of equidistant beacon slots transmitted at constant time interval.

How could Bluetooth be used?

What could be the practical use of Bluetooth? Well, its very much up to our imagination. But the ambition is set high, indeed; practically all computerized equipment normally found in a modern office (and home) which do not use a synchronous communications protocol could be adapted for use with Bluetooth. Check this list: y y y y y y y y y y Phones and pagers Modems LAN access devices Headsets Notebook computers Desktop and handheld computers Printers Fax machines Keyboards Joysticks

Application Examples:
1. A Bluetooth-mouse could be used at a further distance from a monitor, and while moving about in the room. 2. A Bluetooth-keyboard could be used further away from the monitor. This would reduce eye-strain for persons who are longsighted. Increasing the distance would also reduce exposure to electromagnetic radiation from the monitor. 3. A Bluetooth-keyboard could also be used to address more than one computer, in a dynamic, switchless manner. 4. Use e-mail while your portable PC is still in the briefcase! When your portable PC receives an e-mail, you'll get an alert on your mobile phone. You can also browse all incoming e-mails and read those you select in the mobile phone's display. 5. A travelling businessman could ask his laptop computer to locate a suitable printer as soon as he enters a hotel lobby, and send a printout to that printer when it has been found, and replied in a positive manner. 6. Cable-less connection to printers and faxes. 7. Cable-less connection to digital cameras and video projectors. 8. Cordless connection from cell phone to handsfree headset. 9. Bluetooth interface to office PBX. 10. Dial-up networking and automatic e-mail. 11. Use cell phone as office cordless phone.

Virtually any digital device can be part of the Bluetooth system. Bluetooth radio technology can also provide a universal bridge to existing data networks, a peripheral interface, and a mechanism to form small ad hoc groupings of connected devices, away from fixed network infrastructures. The dynamic connectivity-nature of Bluetooth makes it possible for this system to replace USB, and it is an improvement on Plug-and-Playsystems, where the operating system has to be

rebooted for the installation to take effect. A Bluetooth-mouse is already in existence; it was shown at CeBIT in Hannover in February 2000, and more items are on their way.

News at Comdex 1999

One of the highlights at the annual Comdex show in Las Vegas in Autumn 1999 was the Bluetooth pavilion, where Motorola showed a Palm V Just add your own ideas to this list! synchronising data with a mobile phone. Using a 3Com cradle attached to the back of the Palm V, Motorola demonstrated the types of Bluetooth devices that it will eventually be selling. The cradle contained Bluetooth radio for transmitting and receiving data and a prototype phone contained a built-in Wap (wireless application protocol) browser for viewing Web pages. It also used Bluetooth for synchronising data such as an address book. Ericsson showed a wireless hands-free headset for its mobile phone. The headset used Bluetooth to connect to a special adapter attached to the cell phone. Peripherals manufacturer TDK Systems showed three Bluetooth radio systems: one based on CardBus technology and designed for laptops; the second, a Compactflash card, was designed to be plugged into a handheld PC. The third was an external Bluetooth radio which could be attached to a PC via a USB cable. TDK Systems also plans to develop a Bluetooth hub, providing four Bluetooth radios to connect to a corporate network. The hub would expand the available bandwidth of Bluetooth, allowing up to four users to connect into a corporate network at a speed of 721 kb/second each.

12. Use of PC or PDA as handsfree phone. 13. Automatic exchange of files, electronic business cards, calendars etc. 14. Dancing couples at a dance hall could receive the music through their headsets and pick the dance of their choice (a bit far-fetched, perhaps, but who knows? Some day....).

Basic Bluetooth functions

The Bluetooth technology is quite complex. This is not so surprising, considering the task it has to handle. It is mainly based on the IEEE 802.11 standard, briefly described at right. Of the 2 network modes described, Bluetooth uses the ad-hoc mode. This means that each station must observe "netiqette" and give all other units fair access to the wireless media. The above diagram shows the main building blocks. With todays technology, the transmitter/receiver-part for Bluetooths requirements could be made as small as a thumbnail (!!), and the antenna could be more or less hidden in the unit, much as it is in mobile telephones. Thus, the connectors in corresponding older units would not be replaced by something of similar dimensions; the transceiver would just "disappear" among other circuits.

The IEEE 802.11 standard

The IEEE 802.11communications standard defines the protocol for two types of networks; Ad-hoc and client/server. The Ad-hoc network is a simple network where communications are established between multiple stations in a given coverage area without the use of an access point or server. The 802.11- standard specifies the etiquette that each station must observe so that all units have fair access to the wireless media. It provides methods for arbitrating requests to use the media to ensure that throughput is maximized for all of the users in the base service set. The client/server network uses an access point that controls the allocation of transmit time for all stations and allows mobile stations to roam from cell to cell. The access point is used to handle traffic from the mobile radio to the wired or wireless backbone of the client/server network. This arrangement allows for point coordination of all the stations in the basic service area and ensures proper handling of the data traffic. The access point routes data

Functionally, one talks about the three core protocols: The logical link control and adaptation protocol (L2CAP), the service discovery protocol (SDP) and the RFCOMM protocol. L2CAP, which adapts upper layer protocols over the Baseband, provides data services to the high layer protocols with protocol multiplexing capability, segmentation and reassembly operations, and group abstractions. Device information, services and the characteristics of the services can be queried using the SDP. Like SDP, RFCOMM is layered on top of the L2CAP. As a cable replacement protocol, RFCOMM provides transport capabilities for high-level services (e.g. OBEX protocol) that use serial line as the transport mechanism. The Bluetooth air interface is based on a nominal antenna power of 0 dBm. Spectrum spreading has been added to facilitate optional operation at power levels up to 100 mW worldwide. This is accomplished by frequency hopping; 79 hops displaced by 1 MHz, starting at 2.402 GHz and stopping at 2.480 GHz. Due to local regulations, the bandwidth is reduced in Japan, France and Spain. This is handled by an internal software switch. The maximum frequency hopping rate is 1600 hops/s. The nominal link

range is 10 centimeters to 10 meters, but can be extended to more than 100 meters by increasing the transmit power.

between the stations and other wireless stations or to and from the network server. Typically, WLANs (i.e. wireless LANs) controlled by a central access point will provide better throughput performance than adhoc networks.

The Bluetooth "Channels"

"Channels" can mean 3 different things in this context: 1. It could refer to the 79 (or 23) RF-channels, on individual frequencies 1 MHz apart 2. It could also refer to the communications channels, consisting of a pseudo-random hopping sequence through these 79 (or 23) RF-channels. Such a channel could more be likened with what is called a "session" in the OSI-model. 3. There are also 5 Logical Channels, which are used for control purposes.

2 types of physical links are defined:

y y SCO (Synchronous Connection-Oriented) ACL (Asynchronous Connection-Less) ACL provides packet-switched connections between the master and all active slaves. Packet retransmissions are usually applied to assure data integrity. For each of these link types, 12 different packet types have been defined. 4 control packets are common to both links.

The SCO link is point-to-point between master and slave. The master maintains the link by using reserved timeslots at regular intervals. Packet retransmissions are not allowed.

How does Bluetooth work?

Bluetooth uses frequency hopping in timeslots. Bluetooth has been designed to operate in noisy radio frequency environments, and uses a fast acknowledgement and a frequency-hopping scheme to make the communications link robust, communication-wise. Bluetooth radio modules avoid interference from other signals by hopping to a new frequency after transmitting or receiving a packet. Compared with other systems operating in the same frequency band, the Bluetooth radio typically hops faster and uses shorter packets. This is because short packages and fast hopping limit the impact of microwave ovens and other sources of disturbances. Use of Forward Error Correction (FEC) limits the impact of random noise on longdistance links.

Communication routes
One thing that can be noted from the figure above is that, although Bluetooth works in an ad-hoc fashion (and not server-based) all communication is done visavi the Master unit. There is no direct communication between slave units. Nor is it intended for the Master to route messages between slave units. Rather, if slave units find that they want to talk directly to each other, they would form a new piconet, with one of them acting as Master. This does not mean that they have to leave the previous piconet. More likely, they will be parked in the "old" net unless they decide to quit the "old" net altogether. This is not a big decision for the slave units; reconfiguration in Bluetooth is dynamic and very fast.

2 transmission power levels Technical prestanda

The Bluetooth radio is built into a small microchip and operates in a globally available frequency band ensuring communication compatibility worldwide. The Bluetooth specification has two power levels defined; y y a lower power level that covers the shorter personal area within a room, and a higher power level that can cover a The Bluetooth baseband protocol is a combination of circuit and packet switching. Time slots can be reserved for synchronous packets. A frequency hop is done for each packet that is transmitted. A packet nominally covers a single time slot, but can be extended to cover up to five slots.

medium range, such as within a home. Software controls and identity coding built into each microchip ensure that only those units preset by their owners can communicate.

Bluetooth can support; y y y an asynchronous data channel, or up to 3 simultaneous synchronous voice channels, or a channel which simultaneously supports asynchronous data and synchronous voice.

Establishing network connections

Creating a Piconet
A piconet can be created in one of 4 ways: 1. A page (used by Master to connect to Slave) 2. A page scan (a unit listens for its device access code) 3. A Master Slave switch is made 4. An Unpark of a unit is made (provided there are no active slaves). In order to establish new connections the procedures inquiry and paging are used. The inquiry procedure enables a unit to discover which units are in range, and what their device addresses and clocks are. With the paging proce-dure, an actual connection can be established. Only the Bluetooth device address is required to set up a connection. Knowledge about the clock will accelerate the setup procedure. A unit that establishes a connection will carry out a page procedure and will automatically become the master of the connection. For the paging process, several paging schemes can be applied. There is one mandatory paging scheme which has to be supported by each Bluetooth device. This mandatory scheme is used when units meet for the first time, and in case the paging process directly follows the inquiry process. Two units, once connected using a mandatory paging/scanning scheme, may agree on an optional paging/scanning scheme.

The Connection Establishment

After the paging procedure, the master must poll the slave by sending POLL or NULL packets, to which the slave responds. LMP procedures that do not require any interactions between the LM and the host at the paged units side can then be carried out. When the paging device wishes to create a connection involving layers above LM, it sends LMP_host_connection_req. When the other side receives this message, the host is informed about the incoming connection. The remote device can accept or reject the connection request by sending LMP_accepted or LMP_not_accepted. When a device does not require any further link set-up procedures, it will send LMP_setup_complete. The device will still respond to requests from the other device. When the other device is also ready with link set-up, it will send LMP_setup_complete. After this, the first packet on a logical channel different from LMP can then be transmitted.

The Salutation Architecture

The Salutation Architecture was created to solve problems of service discovery and utilization among a broad set of applications and equipment and in an environment of widespread connectivity and mobility. The Salutation Architecture defines an entity called the Salutation Manager (SLM) which functions as a service brooker for applications, services and devices that are called Networked Entities. The Salutation Manager allows Networked Entities to discover and utilize other Networked Entities.

When and how is a Scatternet created?

A Master or Slave can become Slave in another piconet by being paged by the Master in this other piconet. This automatically means that any unit can create a new piconet by paging a unit that is already a member of a piconet. Any unit participating in one piconet can page the Master or Slave in another piconet. This could lead to a switch of roles between Master and Slave in this new connection.

Inter-piconet communications are established over the shared unit. Time multiplexing must be used for that unit to switch between piconets. In case of ACL links, a unit can request to enter the HOLD or PARK mode in the current piconet, during which time in may join another piconet by just changing the channel parameters. Units in the SNIFF mode may have sufficient time to visit another piconet in between the sniff slots. If SCO links are established, other piconets can only be visited in the non-reserved slots in-between.

What kind of traffic can Bluetooth handle?

Bluetooth is specifically designed to provide lowcost, robust, efficient, high capacity, ad hoc voice

Sound Transmissions

and data networking with the following characteristics: 1. 1 Mb/sec. transmission/reception rate exploits maximum available channel bandwidth. 2. Fast frequency hopping avoids interference. 3. Adaptive output power minimizes interference. 4. Short data packets maximize capacity during interference. 5. Fast acknowledge allows low coding overhead for links. 6. CVSD (Continuous Variable Slope Delta Modulation) voice coding enables operation at high bit-error rates. 7. Flexible packet types supports a wide application range. 8. Relaxed link budget supports low-cost single chip integration. 9. Transmission/reception interface tailored to minimize electric current consumption.

Bluetooth uses either a 64 kb/s log PCM format (Alaw or m-law) or a 64 kb/s CVSD (Continuous Variable Slope Delta Modulation). The CVSDformat uses an adaptive delta modulation algorithm with syl-labic companding. The voice coding on the line interface should have a quality equal to or better than the quality of 64 kb/s log PCM. LOG PCM CODEC Since the voice channels on the air-interface can support a 64 kb/s information stream, a 64 kb/s log PCM traffic can be used for transmission, using either A-law or m-law compression. If the line interface uses A-law and the air interface uses mlaw or vice versa, a conversion from A-law to m-law is performed. The compression method follows ITU-T recommendations G. 711. CVSD CODEC A more robust format for voice over the air interface is a delta modulation. This modulation scheme follows the waveform where the output bits indicate whether the prediction value is smaller or larger then the input waveform. To reduce slope overload effects, syllabic companding is applied: the step size is adapted according to the average signal slope. The input to the CVSD encoder is 64 ksamples/second linear PCM.

The Bluetooth technology was not planned to be just a physical wireless medium offering merely a platform for high-level protocols and applications. The aim is to provide something more, with immediate device-interoperability as soon as the first Bluetooth products hit the market. But this can only be achieved if all the communication blocks, including radios, protocols and applications, are accurately defined and can interoperate.

CVSD audio quality

For Bluetooth audio quality the requirements are put on the transmitter side. The 64 ksamples/s linear PCM input signal must have negligible spectral power density above 4 kHz. A set of reference input signals are encoded by the transmitter and sent through a reference decoder (available on the website). The power spectral density in the 432 kHz band of the decoded signal

CVSD Waveform Coding

at the 64 ksample/s linear PCM output, should be more than 20 dB below the maxi-mum in the 0-4 kHz range.

Fitting into the Environment

Connection speeds of up to 721kbps are possible, providing users with network performance that it is not much slower than a shared Lan. In theory, Bluetooth can be added to the network backbone to simplify hot-desking. It can also allow users to synchronise address books and e-mail messages with mobile devices without having to worry about plugging in devices. But while Bluetooth will allow uses to connect to mobile devices without needing to carry external cables, current devices such as mobile phones will need adapters to work with Bluetooth. At the CeBIT-fair in Hannover, Germany in March, 2001, the Singapore-based company Sunderland Technologies introduced a Bluetooth-module for the Palm V-series. When the Wave Clip Bluetooth module is switched on, Palm V can communicate with other Bluetoothunits within a 9 meters radiu

What about competing technologies?

Is Bluetooth a Wireless LAN (WLAN)?

No, Bluetooth is not intended as a wireless extension of ordinary LANs. Both Bluetooth and WLANs are based upon the IEEE 802.11-standard. But there are too many differences for these systems to replace each others:

Could not WAP be used?

y WLANs are essentially ordinary LANprotocols modulated on carrier waves. Bluetooth is more complex than that. Bluetooths essence is dynamically configured units. Thats not how LANs work. Bluetooth hops very fast (1600 hops/second) between frequencies, which WAP - Wireless Application Protocol - is a framework specified by industry leaders supporting mobile IT-solutions. It is a communications protocol for mobile phones, meant as an extension of available, Internet-based services. WAP only covers the higher protocol levels. There is no

does not allow for long datablocks. A Bluetooth channel cannot handle as high data throughput as a WLAN. Bluetooth relies on ad-hoc-connectivity. This does not square well with (predominantly) server-based LANs.

connection to the 802.11 standard. WAP might not survive for long; Japan has a corresponding service that is far more extensive.

Moreover, when a Bluetooth connection collides with a wireless LAN connection, either or both connections can jam! Bluetooth may be a boon to mobile devices, but to wireless LANs, it's a bully!! The problem: It uses the 2.4 GHz radio frequency, the same used by wireless LANs based on the IEEE 802.11 standard. But these two technologies have different functions. Bluetooth requires little power and is meant for transmitting small amounts of data (at 1Mbps) over short distances (up to 10 meters). 802.11 connections can range in transmission rates from 2 Mbps to 11 Mbps and at distances from 15 to about 100 meters.

How about Infrared technology?

One of the 3 IrDa-standards that are used today is called IrDa-Data, and this standard is primarily meant for data transmission. But the main differences as compared to Bluetooth are: y IrDa is not omnidirectional, as is Bluetooth. The IrDa-beam has to be aimed at the receiving antenna. IrDa must hav a free line of sight. IrDa is point-to-point; only 2 units at a time can communicate.

y y

For a good comparison of these 2 technologies, visit the Counterpoint website.

Why not equip laptop PCs with mobile phone units?

Cost is too high. There are many different phone standards to choose from. There is no standard that is universally available around the world. The usage model for mobile PCs do not match that of phones.

However, new technology from an Israeli company could free users from having to line up the infra-red ports on their portables in order to exchange data. Infra-Com has launched infra-red technology which allows links without the communicating devices having to 'see' each other in the traditional line-ofsight way. The line-of-sight requirement has been the impetus for challenging wireless technologies such as Bluetooth. But Infra-Com's new Red Beamer technology for portable devices uses indirect and diffused infra-red light, working rather like a light bulb, with light bouncing off walls and ceilings to reach the device target.

Why not use contactless "smart" cards?

Well; yes and no. Contactless "smart" cards are the Initially, devices receiving Red Beamer will need an basis of some Bluetooth-applications. But Bluetooth external infra-red peripheral for data to be goes much further than that. Smart cards: exchanged, but Infra-Com intends to embed the technology into devices' PCI cards. But Red Beamer's initial 56 kbps transmission speed is y are point-to-point much slower than Bluetooth's target of 2mbps. y are not session-oriented y have no inherent reliability when transmitting/receiving information. They are better compared with the contactless

transmission-mode on the Internet. All the functionality that smart cards have can be included in Bluetooths functionality.

So there you are; Bluetooth is simply the best!

What about radiation; is it dangerous?

It is a matter of concern for some people that the carrier waves used by Bluetooths transmitters use the same frequency range as microwave owens (Bluetooth uses 2.402 GHz to 2.480 GHz). What does it feel like to get in the path of such waves? Actually, the transmitting power is far too weak to be noticeable for humans. Moreover, the radiation is not concentrated in a beam, but dispersed more or less in all directions. When using a wireless phone or a Bluetooth device, some of the emitted RF energy is absorbed by the body. The penetration depth is about 1.5 cm at 2450 MHz (about 2.5 cm at 900 MHz), which means that the absorption is very superficial. The main absorption mechanism is fieldinduced rotation of polar molecules (for example H2O), which generates heat through molecular "friction".

Heating by means of radio frequencies is possible over a broad frequency range. This is taken advantage of in microwave ovens at 2450 MHz using very high power levels (up to 1,000,000 times the power used by Bluetooth devices). However, 2450 MHz is not a resonance frequency of water. But does exposure to Bluetooth RF emission heat the human body? No it does not. The output power of a Bluetooth-enabled device is far too low to cause any detectable temperature increase. Again, in comparison, the maximum increase from handheld cellular phones is less than 0.1C. There is, however, another side to this; some people are demonstrably over-sensitive to electromagnetic radiations. Long exposure to strong fields make some individuals so sensitive, after a few years, that they can no longer be near such fields without considerable discomfort. Bluetooth fits into a general development pattern where antennas for GSM-transmission and other sources of electromagnetic radiations become more and more prevalent in our cities. The future will show whether this is a healthy development.

What is Bluetooth s prestanda?

Technical standards and performance levels

1. Bluetooth is based upon small, high performance integrated radio transceivers, each of which is allocated a unique 48-bit address derived from the IEEE 802 standards. 2. It operates in the unrestricted 2.45 GHz ISM "free band", which is available globally, although slight variation of location and width of band apply. 3. The range is set at 10 meters to optimize for target market of mobile and business user. The range can, however, be increased. 4. Gross data rate is 1Mbit/s, with second generation plans to increase to 2 Mbit/s. 5. One-to-one connections allow maximum data transfer rate of 721 kbits/s (corresponding to 3 voice channels). 6. Bluetooth uses a packet switching protocol, based on a frequency hop scheme with 1600 hops/sek. to enable high performance in noisy radio environments. The entire available frequency spectrum is used with 79 hops of 1 Mhz bandwidth, analogous to the IEEE 802.11 standard. 7. It has low power consumption, drawing only 0.3 mA in standby mode. This enables maximum performance longevity for battery powered devices. During data transfer the maximum current drain is 30 mA. However, during pauses or at lower data rates the drain would be lower.

Bluetooth has 2 transmission power levels

The Bluetooth radio is built into a small microchip and operates in a globally available frequency band ensuring communication compatibility worldwide. The Bluetooth specification has two power levels defined; 1. a lower power level that covers the shorter personal area within a room, and 2. a higher power level that can cover a medium range, such as within a home. Software controls and identity coding built into each microchip ensure that only those units preset by their owners can communicate.

Bluetooth provides both circuit and packet switching

The Bluetooth baseband protocol is a combination of circuit and packet switching. Time slots can be reserved for synchronous packets. A frequency hop is done for each packet that is transmitted. A packet nominally covers a single time slot, but can be extended to cover up to five slots. Bluetooth can support; y y y an asynchronous data channel, or up to 3 simultaneous synchronous voice channels, or a channel which simultaneously supports asynchronous data and synchronous voice.

What about Bluetooth s security?

Security can mean two things in this context: y A) We want to be sure that transmitted data arrives in un-corrupted condition to the receiver. B) We also want to feel that this data has not been eavesdropped by parties for whom it is not intended.

Bluetooth s Error Correction Schemes

Bluetooth units often have to contend with electromagnetically noisy environments. Thus, the need for some kind of error-detection and -correction. For error-detection, Bluetooth uses various checksumcalculations. When errors are detected, there are 3 error-correction schemes defined for Bluetooth: 1. 1/3 rate FEC (Forward Error Correction) 2. 2/3 rate FEC 3. ARQ unnumbered scheme (Automatic Repeat Request). The purpose of the FEC scheme on the data payload is to reduce the number of retransmissions. However, in a reasonably error-free environment, FEC gives unnecessary overhead that reduces the throughput. Therefore, the packet definitions have been kept flexible to use FEC in the payload or not, resulting in y y the DM and DH packets for the ACL link, and the HV packets for the SCO link.

Both of these issues are (of course!) addressed by Bluetooth.

Safer transmission of data

Are transmissions secure in a business and home environment? Yes, they are supposed to be quite reliable. Bluetooth has built in sufficient encryption and authentication and is thus very secure in any environment. In addition to this, a frequencyhopping scheme with 1600 hops/sec. is employed. This is far quicker than any other competing system. This, together with an automatic output power adaption to reduce the range exactly to requirement, makes the system extremely difficult to eavesdrop.

The packet header is always protected by a 1/3 rate FEC; it contains valuable link information and should be able to sustain more bit errors.

Information Integrity in Bluetooth

Information Integrity is of vital importance. We dont want outside parties to listen in. In Bluetooth, it has these components: y y y y Random Number Generation Encryption Encryption Key Management Authentication.

The ARQ-scheme is illustrated at right. On 2 occasions, the transmitted data blocks get corrupted, which is detected by the recipient. So the next time that recipient get a chance to communicate with that sender (i.e. at the next appropriate timeslot), the recipient sends a Negative Acknowledgement (a NAK, depicted in red), which prompts the other party to retransmit that data block.

How networks are formed and controlled

The Various States of Bluetooth Units

Bluetooth supports both point-to-point and point-to- multi-point connections. Several piconets can be established and linked together ad hoc, where each piconet is identified by a different frequency hopping sequence. All users participating on the same piconet are synchronized to this hopping sequence. Before any connections in a piconet are created, all devices are in STANDBY mode. In this mode, an unconnected unit periodically "listens" for messages every 1.28 seconds. Each time a device wakes up, it listens on a set of 32 hop frequencies defined for that unit. The number of hop frequencies varies in different geographic regions; 32 is the number for most countries.

The connection procedure for a non-existent piconet is initiated by any of the devices, which then becomes master of the piconet thus created. A connection is made by a PAGE message being

A power saving mode can be used for connected units in a piconet if no data needs to be transmitted.

sent if the address is already known, or by an INQUIRY message followed by a subsequent PAGE message if the address is unknown. In the initial PAGE state, the master unit will send a train of 16 identical page messages on 16 different hop frequencies defined for the device to be paged (slave unit). If there is no response, the master transmits a train on the remaining 16 hop frequencies in the wake-up sequence. The maximum delay before the master reaches the slave is twice the wakeup period (2.56 seconds) while the average delay is half the wakeup period (0.64 seconds).

The master unit can put slave units into HOLD mode, where only an internal timer is running. Slave units can also demand to be put into HOLD mode. Data transfer restarts instantly when units transition out of HOLD mode. The HOLD is used when connecting several piconets or managing a low power device such as a temperature sensor. In the SNIFF mode, a slave device listens to the piconet at reduced rate, thus reducing its duty cycle. The SNIFF interval is programmable and depends on the application.

In the PARK mode, a device is still synchronized to the piconet but does not participate in the traffic. Parked devices have given up their MAC address The INQUIRY message is typically used for finding Bluetooth devices, including public printers, and occasionally listen to the traffic of the master fax machines and similar devices with an unknown to re-synchronize and check on broadcast address. The INQUIRY message is very similar to messages. the page message, but may require one additional train period to collect all the responses.

Bluetooth Operational States

The illustration at rigt shows the 4 states that a Bluetooth unit can exist in. The "Connecting State" is transitory, but the other three have no limit to their duration. The "sniffing" corresponds to the Inquiry exchange, where the Master looks for a unit to which it does not have the address. The search criteria in such a case would be certain attributes, such as "looking for a laser writer that can handle postscript" or the like.

Letting Master and Slave trade places

In principle, the unit that creates the piconet becomes the Master. However, a Master-Slave switch can take place when a Slave wants to become a Master. These 2 units then have to reverse their TX and RX timing; a so-called TDD switch. However, since the piconet parameters are derived from the device addresses and clock of the Master, a Master-Slave switch involves a redefinition of the piconet as well; a piconet switch. The new piconets parameters are derived from the former Slaves device address and clock. As a consequence of this piconet switch, other slaves in the piconet, not involved in the switch, have to be logically moved to the new piconet. This means changing their timing and their hopping scheme. A rather complex procedure

What s the advantage of frequency-hopping?

Bluetooth has been designed to operate in noisy radio frequency environments, and uses a fast acknowledgement and frequency-hopping scheme to make the link robust, communication-wise. Bluetooth radio modules avoid interference from other signals by hopping to a new frequency after transmitting or receiving a packet. Compared with other systems operating in the same frequency band, the Bluetooth radio typically hops faster and uses shorter packets. This is because short packages and fast hopping limit the impact of microwave ovens and other sources of disturbances. Use of Forward Error Correction (FEC) limits the impact of random noise on long-distance links. Considering the example at right, one realizes that hopping out-and-into a continous range of frequencies that are subject to noise gives the communications link a better chance to remedy transmission errors when out of the disturbed frequencies, than would have been the case if the transmission had stayed for several timeslots within the noisy frequency range. This argument does not hold true if the noise is spread over the whole frequency range in a random fashion, but sources of electromagnetic noise usually give the pattern illustrated at right. Whenever a connection (a "piconet") is first established between 2 (or more) units, the Master-unit establishes a frequency-hopping scheme, which is communicated to the other units. This frequency selection scheme consists of two parts:

y y

selecting a sequence; mapping this sequence onto the hop frequencies.

The mapping from the input to a particular hop frequency is performed in the selection box. Basically, the input is the native clock and the current address. In the CONNECTION state, the native clock is modified by an offset to equal the master clock. Only the 27 MSBs of the clock are used. In the page and inquiry substates, all 28 bits of the clock are used. However, in the PAGE substate the native clock will be modified to the masters estimate of the paged unit.

The frequency-hopping schemes

10 types of frequency-hopping sequences are defined 5 for the 79-hop and 5 for the 23-hop system. These sequences are: 1. A page hopping sequence with 32 (16) unique wake-up frequencies, distributed equally over the 79 (23) MHz, with a period 3. An inquiry sequence with 32 (16) unique wake-up frequencies, distributed equally over the 79 (23) MHz, with a period length of 32 (16). 4. A inquiry response sequence covering 32 (16) unique response frequencies that are all in a one-to-one correspondence to the

length of 32 (16). 2. A page response sequence covering 32 (16) unique response frequencies that are all in a one-to-one correspondence to the current hopping sequence. Master & Slave use different rules to obtain the same sequence.

current inquiry hopping sequence. 5. A channel hopping sequence with very long period, which does not show repetitive patterns over a short time interval, but which distributes the hop frequencies equally.

How timeslots are used

Transmission/reception takes place in timeslots that are only 625 mikroseconds in duration. The Master uses evennumbered slots to address each slave in turn, and each addressed slave has the opportunity to answer in the following odd-numbered timeslot. Or it can wait for it turn next time around. In addition to this, some timeslots are used for broadcasts and as logical channels for synchronization and other control signals. Thus, we get a rotating scheme, resembling the illustration above. The slot-numbering proceeds to a very high number; it takes about a day for the slot-numbering to start over again. The clock of the Master unit decides when these slots start and end, and the slaves will thus need to be very closely

The Communications channels

The hopping sequence is unique for each piconet, and is determined by the Bluetooth device address of the Master. The channel is divided into 625 s long timeslots. They are cyclically numbered by the clock of the piconet Master. Bluetooth uses 5 Logical Channels: y LC Channel (Link Control) Is mapped onto the packet header. Carries low-level link control information, like flow control. Is carried on every packet except in the ID packet, which has no header. LM Channel (Link Manager) Carries control information exchanged between the link managers of the master and slave(s). UA/UI Channels (User Asynchronous/Isochronous Data) Carries L2CAP transparent asynchronous user data.. May be transmitted in one or more baseband packets. US Channel (User Synchronous Data)

synchronized to this clock.

Carries transparent synchronous user data. Is carried over the SCO link.

Multi-slot packets
A packet is normally contained in 1 slot, as shown above, but it can cover up to 5 slots if needed. It is then imprtant that the frequencies used in the following timeslots are those that are assigned to those slots, and that they do not follow the frequency sequence that should have normally applied. This is illustrated below.