KP00103

CHAPTER 5
WIRELESS PAN
Table of Contents
➢Introduction
➢Why Wireless PANs
➢The Bluetooth Technology
➢Enhancements to Bluetooth
➢The IEEE 802.15 Working Group for WPANs
➢Comparison between WPAN Systems
➢WLANs versus WPANs
➢Conclusion and Future Directions
INTRODUCTION
▪WPANs are short to very-short range wireless
networks (from a couple centimeters to a couple
of meters)
▪WPANs can be used to replace cables between
computers and their peripherals
▪The IEEE 802 has established the IEEE 802.15 WG
(working group) for WPANs, which standardizes
protocols and interfaces for WPANs
▪The best example representing WPANs is the
industry standard Bluetooth, which can be found
in many consumer electronics
WLAN and WPAN
Standards
 ▪The concept of Personal Area Networks (PANs) was first demonstrated by
IBM researchers in 1996 that utilized human body to exchange digital
information
▪IBM engineers created a way to communicate between body-borne
appliances by using the human body as a channel
▪Only limitation is that some form of human contact between devices is
required which may not always be desirable or possible
▪To get around this problem of human contact, other alternatives such as
infrared (IR) or radio communications have been considered, using wireless
methods such as IR or radio frequency (RF) for PANs

Why ▪WPAN devices are typically smaller, operate on battery power, and are
either worn on a human body or carried personally
Wireless ▪The main design goal of WPANs is to allow devices that are in close
proximity to communicate and exchange information with each other, either
PANs stationary or moving
▪A WPAN is functionally similar to a WLAN, while differs in terms of power
consumption, coverage range, data rate and the cost
Why Wireless PANs
❑WPAN should allow devices to create or provide data/voice access
points, personal ad hoc connectivity and be a replacement for
having connecting cables
❑The operating range for these devices is within a personal
operating space (POS) of up to 10 meters in all directions, and
includes a stationary or a mobile person
❑The concept of a POS can also be extended to devices such as
printers, scanners, digital cameras, microwave ovens, TVs or VCRs
❑As WPANs use the license-free radio frequencies (e.g., ISM- band), ISM-Industrial, Scientific and Medical
they have to coexist with other RF technologies that make use of
these frequencies
The Bluetooth
Technology
✓Bluetooth is a low cost and short-range radio communication
standard that was introduced as an idea in Ericsson
✓Engineers envisioned a need for a wireless transmission
technology that would be cheap, robust, flexible, and consume low
power
✓Bluetooth was chosen to serve as the baseline of the IEEE
802.15.1 standard for WPANs, which can support both
synchronous traffic such as voice, and asynchronous data
communication
 Applications of Bluetooth
1. Consumer – Wireless PC peripherals, smart house wireless
PC peripherals, smart house integration, etc.
2. Games – Controllers, virtual reality, etc.
3. Professional – smart phones, desktops, automobiles, etc.
4. Services – Shipping, travel, hotels, etc.
5. Industry – Delivery (e.g., scanners, printers), assembly
lines, inspections, inventory control, etc.
6. Sports training – Health sensors, monitors, motion
tracking, etc
 Bluetooth –
Technical Overview
✓The Bluetooth Specification (version 1.1)
describes radio devices designed to operate
over very short ranges – on the order of 10
meters – or
✓ optionally a medium range (100 meters) radio
link capable of voice or data transmission to a
maximum capacity of 720 kbps per channel
(with a nominal throughput of 1 Mbps)

✓Radio frequency operation is in the

unlicensed ISM band at 2.4 to 2.48 GHz, using
a frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS),
full-duplex signal at up to 1600 hops/seconds
 ✓The Bluetooth specifications are divided into two parts:
✓The Core – This portion specifies components such as the radio,
base band (medium access), link manager, service discovery
protocol, transport layer, and interoperability with different
communication protocols
✓The Profile – The Profile portion specifies the protocols and
procedures required for different types of Bluetooth applications

✓Whenever a pair or small group of Bluetooth devices

Bluetooth – come within radio range of each other, they can form an
ad hoc network without requiring any infrastructure
Technical ✓Devices are added or removed from the network
Overview dynamically and they can connect to or disconnect from
an existing network at will and without interruption to
the other participants
Bluetooth – Technical Overview

In Bluetooth, the device taking the

initiative to start communication to
another device assumes the role of a
master, while the recipient becomes a
slave

The basic architectural unit of a Bluetooth

is a Piconet, composed of one master
device and up to seven active slave An example of a Piconet
devices, which can communicate with slave can transfer a message to master after getting
each other only through their master polling message from master
Bluetooth – Technical Overview
✓Besides up to 7- active slaves, additional
devices can be connected to a Piconet in a
parked state in which they listen but do not
participate
✓When they want to participate, they are
swapped in and one of the active devices is
swapped out
✓If the acting master leaves the Piconet, one
of the slaves assumes taking its role
An example of a Piconet
✓With this method, up to 255 devices can be
slave can transfer a message to master after getting
virtually connected to the Piconet
polling message from master
Bluetooth –
Technical
Overview
❑Also, each piconet uses a
different Frequency Hopping
Sequence (FHS) in order to
reduce interference with other
nearby piconets
❑To increase the number of
devices in the network, a
scatternet architecture
consisting of several piconets
has been proposed • A scatternet comprised of three piconets
• Since scatternets span more than a single piconet, therefore a few nodes
act as bridges (e.g., B12, B13, B23) responsible for relaying packets across
piconet boundaries
 Bluetooth MAC Address

✓Every single Bluetooth device has a unique 48-bit address

by manufactures, commonly abbreviated BD_ADDR.
✓This will usually be presented in the form of a 12-digit
hexadecimal value.
▪ The most-significant half (24 bits) of the address is an
organization unique identifier (OUI), which identifies the
manufacturer. The lower 24-bits are the more unique part of
the address
✓This address should be visible on most Bluetooth devices.
▪ For example, on this RN-42 Bluetooth Module, the address
printed next to “MAC NO.” is 000666422152
▪ The “000666” portion of that address is the OUI of Roving
Networks, the manufacturer of the module. Every RN module
will share those upper 24-bits. The “422152” portion of the
module is the more unique ID of the device.
 Bluetooth –Link Layer

❑The Bluetooth specification defines two different

types of links for data and voice applications
➢Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO) link
✓SCO link is a symmetric, point-to-point link between
the master and one slave
✓Usually, the SCO link is used for audio applications
with strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements
➢Asynchronous Connectionless (ACL) link
✓ACL link is treated as a packet-switched, point-to-
point and point-to-multipoint data traffic link
✓The master maintains one ACL link with each active
slave over which upper layer connection can be
established and re-transmission is employed only
when it is necessary to ensure the data integrity
 Bluetooth – Specifications
❑The Bluetooth Specifications include the following
1. The Protocol Stack core functionality
2. The usage Profiles for different applications

❑Protocol Stack
➢ The stack defines all layers unique to the Bluetooth technology
➢ Bluetooth core Specifications only define the Physical and the
Data Link layers of the OSI Protocol Stack
➢ The application layer includes all the upper layers (IP, Transport,
Application) sitting on the RFCOMM and the SDP (Service
Discovery Protocol)
➢ These protocols communicate with lower layers via the Host Bluetooth Protocol stack
Controller and the lower layers (RF, Baseband and LMP(Link
Manager Protocol)) are built in hardware modules
Bluetooth – Specifications : Profiles
❑A profile is defined as a combination of protocols and
procedures that are used by devices to implement specific
services as described in the Bluetooth usage models
❑For example, there are headset profile, intercom profile, streaming
stereo-quality audio/video profile, camera profile, TV profile, etc.
❑For example, there are Hands-Free Profile (HFP) 1.5
implementations using both Bluetooth 2.0 and Bluetooth 1.2 core
specifications.

❑Profiles are used to maintain interoperability between

devices (i.e., all devices conforming to a specific profile will be
interoperable), which is one of the Bluetooth’s primary goals
❑The number of Profiles will continue to grow as new
applications come about
Bluetooth Specifications –
Radio Layer
➢It is the lowest layer in Bluetooth protocol stack,
and it defines the requirements of Bluetooth
transceivers operating in unlicensed ISM band
➢Currently, many other wireless devices operate
in this band, and this creates interference
➢Bluetooth mitigates this effect using FHSS as it
also uses FEC(Forward Error Correction) to reduce
the impact of noise on long distance links
➢It has a nominal range of 10 meters at 1 mW
power setting which can be extended up to 100
meters on 100 mW power setting
➢ It uses a Binary Frequency Shift Keying (BFSK)
modulation technique
 Bluetooth Specifications –
Baseband

➢The baseband defines the key procedures that

enable devices to communicate with each other
➢In other words, the baseband layer
incorporates the MAC procedures of Bluetooth
➢It defines the packet formats
➢It deals with how the masters control time
slots and how these slots are grouped into
frames
Packet Structure
72 bits 54 bits 0 - 2744 bits

Access Header Payload

Code

Voice Data CRC

No CRC ARQ
No retries
FEC (optional) FEC (optional)
Bluetooth Specifications –
Link Manager Protocol
❑The Link Manager Protocol (LMP) is a transaction protocol
between two link management entities in different Bluetooth
devices
❑LMP messages are used for link setup, link
control/configuration and the security aspects like
authentication and data encryption
❑The link manager provides the functionality to attach/detach
slaves, switch roles between a master and a slave, and establish
ACL/SCO links
❑Finally, it handles the low power modes, designed to save
power when the device has no data to send
 Bluetooth Specifications – Host
Controller Interface
❑The Host Controller Interface (HCI) provides a uniform
command interface to the baseband and the LMP layers
(i.e., it gives higher-level protocols the possibility to access
lower layers)
❑The transparency allows the HCI to be independent of the
physical link between the Bluetooth module and the host
❑The host application uses the HCI interface to send
command packets to the Link Manager, such as setting up a
connection or starting an inquiry
❑The HCI itself resides in firmware on the Bluetooth module
❑It implements the commands for accessing the baseband,
the LMP and the hardware registers, as well as for sending
messages upward to the host
 Bluetooth Specifications – Logical Link
Control and Adaptation Protocol

❑The Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP) layer shields
the specifics of the lower layers and provides a packet interface to higher
layers
❑At L2CAP level, the concepts of master and slave devices does not exist
anymore as it provides a common base for data communication
❑The L2CAP layer supports the higher-level protocol multiplexing, packet
segmentation and reassembly and QoS maintenance
❑The RFCOMM
➢ RFCOMM (Radio Frequency COMMunication) is a simple transport
protocol that provides serial port emulation over the L2CAP protocol,
and is intended for cable replacement
➢ Each time a Bluetooth device is connected to a computer, a virtual
serial port must be created.
➢ is the transmission of information and control commands from one
communication device to another communication device (such as
from a computer to an accessory device) that is performed serially
(one bit at a time).
Bluetooth Specifications – Service
Discovery Protocol

❑is the process of finding other devices that can communicate with
your device and determining what capabilities they have that you
may want to use.
❑If a device wants to discover the services that another device can
offer, it must use the device address and establish a temporary
connection.
➢ The name and capabilities of the device can be discovered using service
discovery protocol - SDP.

❑SDP is a software program stored in a local device (LocDev) that

actually performs service inquiries against already connected
remote devices.
Connection State Machine

Inquiry Page

Standby Connected

Transmit data

Park Hold Sniff

 Inquiry Scan

• A device that wants to be discovered will periodically enter

this mode and listen for inquiry packets.

Connection Inquiry

State • Device sends an Inquiry packet addressed to GIAC (general

inquiry access code) or DIAC (Dedicated Inquiry Access Code)

Machine • Transmission is repeated on the inquiry hop sequence of

frequencies.

(contd.) Inquiry Response

• When an inquiry message is received in the inquiry scan

state, a response packet (FHS) containing the responding
device address must be sent after a random number of slots.
Connection State Machine (contd.)
Inquiry Response
 Page
The master uses the clock information, about the slave to
be paged, to determine where in the hop sequence, the
slave might be listening in the page scan mode.
The master sends a page message
Page Scan
Connection The page scan substate can be entered by the slave from
the standby state or the connection state. It listens to
State Machine packets addressed to its DAC (Digital-to-Analog
Converters).

(contd.) Page Response

On receiving the page message, the slave enters the slave
page response substate. It sends back a page response
consisting of its ID packet which contains its DAC, at the
frequency for the next slot from the one in which page
message was received.
 Comparison between
WPAN Systems
❑the front runners for WPANs are Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1), IEEE
802.15.3 (High Rate WPAN) and IEEE 802.15.4(Low Rate WPAN). These
three broadly meet the standard criteria of size, cost, simplicity, and low
power consumption
❑ IEEE 802.15.3 definitely has the upper edge since it can offer much
higher data rates, good power control, extremely low connection setup
times, advanced security features and a plethora of QoS services for high
end multimedia traffic even under low power operation
❑IEEE 802.15.4, on the other hand, is extremely suitable for very low
power applications such as sensor networking and home automation,
something that Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.3 are clearly not meant for
and Table 5.5 provides a comparison of the various WPAN systems
discussed so far
Comparison
between WPAN
Systems
 WLANs versus WPANs
❑

❑
❑

❑
WLANs versus WPANs
Conclusions and Future Directions
❑Wireless PANs are also experiencing a considerable growth, but clearly not as
much as the explosive growth seen in the wireless LANs arena
❑Obviously, this is largely due that wireless PANs are much more recent than
wireless LANs
❑Nevertheless, the vast availability of Bluetooth devices and the standardization
of IEEE of various WPAN systems will take this field to a new level
❑There are numerous environments where WPANs are very suitable such as in
sensor networks, while in the home and in the office, WPANs will be part of our
lives
❑Interference mitigation with other systems operating in the same frequency
band, effective QoS support, decentralized network formation, energy
conservation and security are just a few examples of challenges