Bluetooth Architecture

➢ Let us start our study of the Bluetooth system with a quick overview of what it

contains and what it is intended to do.

➢ The basic unit of a Bluetooth system is a piconet , which consists of a controller node

and up to seven active worker nodes within a distance of 10 meters.

➢ Multiple piconets can exist in the same (large) room and can even be connected via

a bridge node that takes part in multiple piconets, as in Fig. 4-30.

➢ An interconnected collection of piconets is called a scatternet

➢ In addition to the seven active worker nodes in a piconet, there can be up to 255

parked nodes in the net.

➢ These are devices that the controller has switched to a low-power state to reduce

the drain on their batteries.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 1

 ➢ In parked state, a device cannot do anything except respond to an activation or

beacon signal from the controller.

➢ Two minor intermediate power states, hold and sniff, also exist

➢ The reason for the controller/worker design is that the designers intended to

facilitate the implementation of complete Bluetooth chips for under $5.

➢ The consequence of this decision is that the workers are fairly dumb, basically just

doing whatever the controller tells them to do.

➢ At its heart, a piconet is a centralized TDM system, with the controller controlling the

lock and determining which device gets to communicate in which time slot.

➢ All communication is between the controller and a worker; direct worker-worker

communication is not possible.

Bluetooth Applications

➢ Most network protocols just provide channels between communicating entities and

let application designers figure out what they want to use them for.

➢ For example, 802.11 does not specify whether users should use their laptop

computers for reading email, surfing the Web, or something else.

➢ In contrast, the Bluetooth SIG specifies particular applications to be supported and

provides different protocol stacks for each one.

➢ At the time of this writing, there are more than two dozen applications, which are

called profiles .

➢ Unfortunately, this approach leads to a very large amount of complexity.

➢ We will omit the complexity here but will briefly look at the profiles to see more

clearly what the Bluetooth SIG is trying to accomplish with them.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 2

 ➢ Six of the profiles are for different uses of audio and video.

➢ For example, the intercom profile allows two telephones to connect as walkie-

talkies.

➢ The headset and hands-free profiles both provide voice communication between a

headset and its base station, as might be used for hands-free telephony while driving

a car.

➢ Other profiles are for streaming stereo-quality audio and video, say, from a portable

music player to headphones, or from a digital camera to a TV.

➢ The human interface device profile is for connecting keyboards and mice to

computers.

➢ Other profiles let a mobile phone or other computer receive images from a camera

or send images to a printer.

➢ Perhaps of more interest is a profile to use a mobile phone as a remote control for a

(Bluetooth-enabled) TV.

➢ Still other profiles enable networking.

➢ The personal area network profile lets Bluetooth devices form an ad hoc network or

remotely access another network, such as an 802.11 LAN, via an access point.

➢ The dial-up networking profile was actually the original motivation for the whole

project.

➢ It allows a (laptop) computer to connect to a mobile phone containing a built-in

modem without using any cables, just radio signals.

➢ Profiles for higher-layer information exchange have also been defined.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 3

 ➢ The synchronization profile is intended for loading data into a mobile phone when it

leaves home and collecting data from it when it returns.

➢ We will skip the rest of the profiles, except to mention that some profiles serve as

building blocks on which the above profiles are built.

➢ The generic access profile, on which all of the other profiles are built, provides a way

to establish and maintain secure links (channels) between the controller and the

workers.

➢ The other generic profiles define the basics of object exchange and audio and video

transport.

➢ Utility profiles are used widely for functions such as emulating a serial line, which is

especially useful for many legacy applications.

➢ Was it really necessary to spell out all these applications in detail and provide

different protocol stacks for each one? Probably not, but there were a number of

different working groups that devised different parts of the standard, and each one

just focused on its specific problem and generated its own profile.

➢ It would probably have been possible to get away with two protocol stacks instead

of 25, one for file transfer and one for streaming real-time communication.

The Bluetooth Protocol Stack

➢ The Bluetooth standard has many protocols grouped loosely into the layers shown

in Fig. 4-31.

➢ The first observation to make is that the structure does not follow the OSI model,

the TCP/IP model, the 802 model, or any other model.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 4

 ➢ The bottom layer is the physical radio layer, which corresponds fairly well to the

physical layer in the OSI and 802 models.

➢ It deals with radio transmission and modulation.

➢ Many of the concerns here have to do with the goal of making the system

inexpensive so that it can become a mass-market item.

➢ The link control (or baseband) layer is somewhat analogous to the MAC sublayer but

also includes elements of the physical layer.

➢ It deals with how the controller controls time slots and how these slots are grouped

into frames.

➢ Next come two protocols that use the link control protocol.

➢ The link manager handles the establishment of logical channels between devices,

including power management, pairing and encryption, and quality of service.

➢ It lies below the host controller interface line.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 5

 ➢ This interface is a convenience for implementation: typically, the protocols below

the line will be implemented on a Bluetooth chip, and the protocols above the line

will be implemented on the Bluetooth device that hosts the chip.

➢ The link protocol above the line is L2CAP (Logical Link Control Adaptation Protocol ).

➢ It frames variable-length messages and provides reliability if needed.

➢ Many protocols use L2CAP, such as the two utility protocols that are shown.

➢ The service discovery protocol is used to locate services within the network.

➢ The RFcomm (Radio Frequency communication) protocol emulates the standard

serial port found on PCs for connecting the keyboard, mouse, and modem, among

other devices.

➢ The top layer is where the applications are located.

➢ The profiles are represented by vertical boxes because they each define a slice of the

protocol stack for a particular purpose.

➢ Specific profiles, such as the headset profile, usually contain only those protocols

needed by that application and no others.

➢ For example, profiles may include L2CAP if they have packets to send but skip L2CAP

if they have only a steady flow of audio samples.

➢ In the following sections, we will examine the Bluetooth radio layer and various link

protocols, since these roughly correspond to the physical and MAC sublayers in the

other protocol stacks we have studied.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 6

 The Bluetooth Radio Layer

➢ The radio layer moves the bits from controller to worker, or vice versa.

➢ It is a low-power system with a range of 10 meters operating in the same 2.4-GHz

ISM band as 802.11.

➢ The band is divided into 79 channels of 1 MHz each.

➢ To coexist with other networks using the ISM band, frequency hopping spread

spectrum is used.

➢ There can be up to 1600 hops/sec over slots with a dwell time of 625-µsec.

➢ All the nodes in a piconet hop frequencies simultaneously, following the slot timing

and pseudorandom hop sequence dictated by the controller.

➢ Unfortunately, it turned out that early versions of Bluetooth and 802.11 interfered

enough to ruin each other’s transmissions.

➢ Some companies responded by banning Bluetooth altogether, but eventually a

technical solution was devised.

➢ The solution is for Bluetooth to adapt its hop sequence to exclude channels on which

there are other RF signals.

➢ This process reduces the harmful interference.

➢ It is called adaptive frequency hopping .

➢ Three forms of modulation are used to send bits on a channel.

➢ The basic scheme is to use frequency shift keying to send a 1-bit symbol every

microsecond, giving a gross data rate of 1 Mbps.

➢ Enhanced rates were introduced with the 2.0 version of Bluetooth.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 7

 ➢ These rates use phase shift keying to send either 2 or 3 bits per symbol, for gross

data rates of 2 or 3 Mbps.

➢ The enhanced rates are only used in the data portion of frames.

The Bluetooth Link Layers

➢ The link control (or baseband) layer is the closest thing Bluetooth has to a MAC

sublayer.

➢ It turns the raw bit stream into frames and defines some key formats.

➢ In the simplest form, the controller in each piconet defines a series of 625-µsec time

slots, with the controller’s transmissions starting in the even slots and the workers’

transmissions starting in the odd ones.

➢ This scheme is traditional time division multiplexing, with the controller getting half

the slots and the workers sharing the other half. Frames can be 1, 3, or 5 slots long.

➢ Each frame has an overhead of 126 bits for an access code and header, plus a settling

time of 250–260 µsec per hop to allow the inexpensive radio circuits to become

stable.

➢ The payload of the frame can be encrypted for confidentiality with a key that is

chosen when the controller and worker connect.

➢ Hops only happen between frames, not during a frame.

➢ The result is that a 5-slot frame is much more efficient than a 1-slot frame because

the overhead is constant but more data is sent.

➢ The link manager protocol sets up logical channels, called links, to carry frames

between the controller and a worker device that have discovered each other.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 8

 ➢ A pairing procedure is followed to make sure that the two devices are allowed to

communicate before the link is used.

➢ The old pairing method is that both devices must be configured with the same four-

digit PIN (Personal Identification Number).

➢ The matching PIN is how each device would know that it was connecting to the right

remote device.

➢ However, unimaginative users and devices default to PINs such as ‘‘0000’’ and

‘‘1234’’ meant that this method provided very little security in practice.

➢ The new secure simple pairing method enables users to confirm that both devices

are displaying the same passkey, or to observe the passkey on one device and enter

it into the second device.

➢ This method is more secure because users do not have to choose or set a PIN.

➢ They merely confirm a longer, device-generated passkey. Of course, it cannot be used

on some devices with limited input/output, such as a hands-free headset.

➢ Once pairing is complete, the link manager protocol sets up the links.

➢ Two main kinds of links exist to carry the payload (user data).

➢ The first is the SCO (Synchronous Connection Oriented ) link.

➢ It is used for real-time data, such as telephone connections.

➢ This type of link is allocated a fixed slot in each direction.

➢ A worker may have up to three SCO links with its controller.

➢ Each SCO link can transmit one 64,000-bps PCM audio channel.

➢ Due to the time-critical nature of SCO links, frames sent over them are never

retransmitted.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 9

 ➢ Instead, forward error correction can be used to increase reliability.

➢ The other kind is the ACL (Asynchronous ConnectionLess ) link.

➢ This type of link is used for packet-switched data that is available irregularly.

➢ ACL traffic is delivered on a best-effort basis without guarantees.

➢ Frames can be lost and may have to be retransmitted.

➢ A worker may have only one ACL link to its controller.

➢ The data sent over ACL links come from the L2CAP layer.

➢ This layer has four major functions.

➢ First, it accepts packets of up to 64 KB from the upper layers and breaks them into

frames for transmission.

➢ At the far end, the frames are reassembled into packets.

➢ Second, it handles the multiplexing and demultiplexing of multiple packet sources.

➢ When a packet has been reassembled, the L2CAP layer determines which upper-

layer protocol to hand it to, for example, RFcomm or service discovery.

➢ Third, L2CAP handles error control and retransmission.

➢ It detects errors and resends packets that were not acknowledged.

➢ Finally, L2CAP enforces quality of service requirements between multiple links.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 10

 The Bluetooth Frame Structure

➢ Bluetooth defines several frame formats, the most important of which is shown in

two forms in Fig. 4-32.

➢ It begins with an access code that usually identifies the controller so that workers

within radio range of two controllers can tell which traffic is for them.

➢ Next comes a 54-bit header containing typical MAC sublayer fields. If the frame is

sent at the basic rate, the data field comes next.

➢ It has up to 2744 bits for a five-slot transmission.

➢ For a single time slot, the format is the same except that the data field is 240 bits.

➢ If the frame is sent at the enhanced rate, the data portion may have up to two or

three times as many bits because each symbol carries 2 or 3 bits instead of 1 bit.

➢ These data are preceded by a guard field and a synchronization pattern that is used

to switch to the faster data rate.

➢ That is, the access code and header are carried at the basic rate and only the data

portion is carried at the faster rate.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 11

 ➢ Enhanced-rate frames end with a short trailer.

➢ Let us take a quick look at the common header.

➢ The Address field identifies which of the eight active devices the frame is intended

for.

➢ The Type field identifies the frame type (ACL, SCO, poll, or null), the type of error

correction used in the data field, and how many slots long the frame is.

➢ The Flow bit is asserted by a worker when its buffer is full and cannot receive any

more data.

➢ This bit enables a primitive form of flow control.

➢ The Acknowledgementbit is used to piggyback an ACK onto a frame. The Sequence

bit is used to number the frames to detect retransmissions.

➢ The protocol is stop-and-wait, so 1 bit is enough.

➢ Then comes the 8-bit header Checksum.

➢ The entire 18-bit header is repeated three times to form the 54-bit header shown in

Fig. 4-32.

➢ On the receiving side, a simple circuit examines all three copies of each bit.

➢ If all three are the same, the bit is accepted.

➢ If not, the majority opinion wins.

➢ Thus, 54 bits of transmission capacity are used to send 10 bits of header.

➢ The reason is that to reliably send data in a noisy environment using cheap, low-

powered (2.5 mW) devices with little computing capacity, a great deal of redundancy

is needed.

➢ Various formats are used for the data field for ACL and SCO frames.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 12

 ➢ The basic-rate SCO frames are a simple example to study: the data field is always 240

bits.

➢ Three variants are defined, permitting 80, 160, or 240 bits of actual payload, with

the rest being used for error correction.

➢ In the most reliable version (80-bit payload), the contents are just repeated three

times, the same as the header.

➢ We can work out the capacity with this frame as follows.

➢ Since the worker may use only the odd slots, it gets 800 slots/sec, just as the

controller does.

➢ With an 80-bit payload, the channel capacity from the worker is 64,000 bps as is the

channel capacity from the controller.

➢ This capacity is exactly enough for a single full-duplex PCM voice channel (which is

why a hop rate of 1600 hops/sec was chosen).

➢ That is, despite a raw bandwidth of 1 Mbps, a single full-duplex uncompressed voice

channel can completely saturate the piconet.

➢ The efficiency of 13% is the result of spending 41% of the capacity on settling time,

20% on headers, and 26% on repetition coding.

➢ This shortcoming highlights the value of the enhanced rates and frames of more than

a single slot.

DR V RAMA KRISHNA TOTTEMPUDI 13