BluetoothTM is a low cost, low power, short-range radio technology- originally perceived as cable replacement alternative for the cable / wire connected devices such as mobile phone hand, headsets, and portable computers. The BluetoothTM's goals expanded to include standardized wireless communications between any electrical devices and created a notion of Personal Area Network. The write-up traces history of BluetoothTM starting with its unusual name to formation of Special Interest Group, SIG's formation, its growth culminating into implementation of version 1.0b. Version 1.0 of the Bluetooth came out in 1999-starting as early as 1994 by engineers from Ericsson. The specification is named after Harald Blatand- a tenth century Viking. Ericsson Corp. founded the Bluetooth SIG in February 1998, Intel Corp., IBM Corp., Toshiba Corp., and Nokia Mobile Phones. In December 1999, core promoters group enlarged to include four major players, namely, Micorsoft, Lucent, 3 Com and Motorola.

Then, the components of BluetoothTM: the protocols, the application profiles are discussed the essentials. The protocol stack is usually, implemented partly in hardware and partly, as software running on microprocessor with implementation partitioning the functionality between hardware and software in different ways. The BluetoothTM devices operate using ISM band- reserved for Industrial, Scientific, and Medical-, which obey set of power and spectral emission and interference specifications. The data packet, piconet and scatternet, voice and links are discussed. The figures support the narrative.

The vulnerability of BluetoothTM is presented, briefly and comparison with immediate competitors i.e., IrDA and Wi-Fi.

Description

1

History: Technology and Viking

4

2

The Special Interest Group, The Name- Harald Blatand, What is Bluetooth

4-7

3

Bluetooth Specific Protocols

7

4

The Radio, Frequency Hopping and Radio Parameters

8-10

5

The Baseband

10

6

The Service Discovery Protocol, Wireless Access Protocol,

Point-to-Point protocol, User Datagram protocol, Transport Control and Internet Protocol

11-13

7

RFCOMM, Bluetooth Packet structure, piconet and Scatternet,

13-16

8

Security and Encryption

16-17

9

The Link Manager

17-18

10

The Host Controller Interface

18-19

11

The Bluetooth Profiles-Applications

19

12

The Generic Access Profile

20

13

Serial Port Profile

20-21

14

The Dial-Up-Network

22

15

FAX profile, Headset Profile, LAN access point profile

22-24

17

Generic Object Exchange Profile

24

18

The Object Exchange Profile

24

19

File Transfer profile, Synchronization, Intercom profile and Cordless telephony

25

20

The Competing Technologies

25-27

21

Bluetooth: Problems and Issues

27

22

Bluetooth: Industrial Backing

28

23

Conclusions

28

24

References

31

The Bluetooth

Table of Contents

Table of Figures

Figure No

Figure and Diagram description

Page No.

1

The Bluetooth Protocol Stack

7

2

WAP on the Bluetooth protocol stack

12

3

Packet coding Structure

15

4

Piconet and Scatternet

16

5

Summary of Link Manager Protocol

17

6

Bluetooth Profile

19

7

OSI Reference model and Bluetooth

21

8

Bluetooth Protocol Stack

21

9

Dial-Up Networking Stack

23

10

OBEX in Bluetooth stack

24

11

IrDA DATA protocol stack

26

12

Glossary of terms

29-30

13

References

31

Table of Tables

Table

Description

Page No.

1

IrDA and BluetoothTM Compared

26

The Bluetooth

History: Technology and Viking

The Bluetooth wireless technology was conceived by engineers at Swedish telecommunications manufacturer Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (hereafter, Ericsson) who realized the potential of global market for short-range wireless communications. In 1994 Ericsson had begun a project to study the feasibility of a low-power, low-cost radio interface to eliminate cables between mobile phones and their accessories.

The customers clearly prefer to purchase and deploy technologies based on industry standards. By creating a level playing field, standards give customers greater freedom to choose from among competing platforms and solutions, to protect their investments as technologies evolve. Against this backdrop- that the technology was more likely to be wisely accepted, if it was adopted and refined by an industry group that could produce an open, common specification- Ericsson inventors moved to form a Special Interest Group.

The Special Interest Group

In early 1998, leading companies in the computing and telecommunication industries formed the Bluetooth SIG to focus on developing exactly such an open specification. The founding companies of the SIG are Ericsson, Intel Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Nokia Corporation, and Toshiba Corporation. These companies formed the original core group (known as promoter companies) of the SIG. The SIG was publicly announced in May 1998 with a charter to produce an open specification for hardware and software that would promote interoperable, cross-platform implementations for all kinds of devices. As the specification...

Initially, the SIG organized itself into several working groups, each with a focus on a specific part of the technology or on some supporting service. These working groups included: the air interface working group, which focused on the radio and baseband layers; the software working group, which developed the specification for the protocol stack; the interoperability working group, which focused on profiles; the compliance working group, which defined the testing, compliance and certification process; the legal working group, which managed the legal affairs of the SIG such as membership and intellectual property agreements; and the marketing working group, which promoted the technology and helped to generate the marketing requirements that the specification was to address.
The Name- Harald Blatand

The Bluetooth name is derived from a Danish Viking and King, Harald Blatand (Bluetooth in English) who lived in the later part of 10th century responsible for uniting and controlling Denmark and Norway (hence, the inspiration on the name: uniting devices through Bluetooth). Anecdote has it that old Harald had inclination towards eating Blueberries, so much so his teeth became stained with the color.

What is Bluetooth

The term Bluetooth™ refers to an open specification for a technology to enable short-range wireless voice and data communications anywhere in the world. This simple and straightforward description of the Bluetooth™ technology includes several points that are key to its understanding:

Open specification

The Bluetooth™ Special Interest Group (SIG) has produced a specification for Bluetooth™ wireless communication that is publicly available and royalty free.

Short-range wireless

Today much of short-range communication takes place over cables. These cables connect to a multitude of devices using a wide variety of connectors with many combinations of shapes, sizes, and number of pins. With Bluetooth™ technology, these devices can communicate without wires over a single air-interface, using radio waves to transmit and receive data. Bluetooth™ wireless technology is specifically designed for short-range- nominally, 10 meters- communications.

Voice and data

Voice is now commonly transmitted and stored in digital formats. Voice appliances such as mobile telephones are also used for data applications such as information access or browsing. Through voice recognition, computers can be controlled by voice, and through voice synthesis, computers can produce audio output in addition to visual output. Bluetooth™ wireless communication makes provisions for both voice and data.

Anywhere in the world

The telecommunications industry is highly regulated in many parts of the world. Telephone systems, for example, must comply with many governmental restrictions, and telephony standards vary by country. Many forms of wireless communications are also regulated; radio frequency spectrum usage often requires a license with strict transmission power obligations. However, some portions of the available radio frequency spectrum may be used without license, and Bluetooth™ wireless communications operate within a chosen frequency spectrum that is unlicensed throughout the world. The Bluetooth™ short-range wireless technology is ideally suited for replacing the many cables that are associated with today's pervasive devices. The Bluetooth™ specification ([BTSIG99], hereafter referred to as the specification) explicitly defines a means for wireless transports to replace serial cables, such as those used with modems, digital cameras and personal digital assistants; the technology could also be used to replace other cables, such as those associated with computer peripherals (including printers, scanners, keyboards, mice and others). Moreover, wireless connectivity among a plethora of fixed and mobile devices can enable many other new and exciting usage scenarios beyond simple cable replacement. It has the potential to change people's lives and the way that people think about and interact with computing and communication devices.

to change people's lives and the way that people think about and interact with computing and communication devices.

Bluetooth™ specific Protocols

A key feature of the Bluetooth™ is that it aims to allow devices to from different manufactures to work with each other. The Bluetooth™ defines radio system and a software stack to enable applications to find other Bluetooth™ devices in the area, discover what services they can offer and use those services. The Bluetooth™ stack is defined as a series of layers, though there are some features, which cross several layers. The Figure-1 shows the core Bluetooth™ specification:

Figure-1: The Bluetooth™ Protocol Stack

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The Bluetooth™ specification encompasses more than just the core specification. There are profiles, which give details of how applications should use the Bluetooth™ protocol stack, and a brand book explains how the Bluetooth™ brand should be used. The Bluetooth™ profiles guidelines on how application should use the Bluetooth™ protocol stack. The TCS (Telephony Control Protocol Specification) provides telephony services. The SDP (Service Discovery Protocol) lets Bluetooth™ devices discover what services other Bluetooth™ support. WAP and OBEX provide interfaces to the higher parts of the communication protocols. RFCOMM provides an RS232 like serial interface. Logic Link Control and Adaption multiplexes data from higher layers, and converts between different packet sizes. The Host Controller Interface handles communications between a separate host and a Bluettoth module. The Link…