Bluetooth - Introduction

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Overview
Cable replacement technology.
◦ Connect devices such as phone handsets, headsets, computer peripherals,
etc.

Industry standard.
◦ Allows wireless communication between devices.

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 Applications: Cable Replacement

 1 Mb/s.
Range ~10 meters.
PANs Why not use Wireless LANs?
Single chip radio. - power
◦ Low power & low cost.
- cost

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 Applications:
Synchronization

Automatic synchronization of
calendars, address books, business
cards.

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Applications: Cordless
Headset
Cordless
headset
Multiple device access.
Hands-free operation.

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More applications…
Conference table.
Cordless computer.
Instant photo transmission.
Cordless phone.

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 Bluetooth Origins
Study by Ericsson Mobile Communications in 1994.
◦ Alternatives to cables connecting mobile phones to accessories.
◦ Use of radio links instead of infrared.
◦ Why?
◦ Transmission of data and voice.

Result: Bluetooth spec.

◦ Named after Harald Blatand (Danish for Bluetooth).
◦ 10th century Viking king who united Denmark and Norway.

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 Bluetooth SIG
Early 1998: Bluetooth SIG is formed.
History
◦ Promoter company group: Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Toshiba.
◦ Goal: develop license-free technology for universal wireless connectivity.
◦ Target: handheld market.
◦ Bluetooth spec: defines RF wireless communication interface and protocols.

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Bluetooth SIG History
May 1998: Public announcement of Bluetooth SIG.
July 1999: 1.0A spec (>1,500 pages) published.
December 1999: version 1.0B released.
December 1999: promoters increases to 9.
◦ 3Com, Lucent, Microsoft, Motorola

February 2000: 1,800+ adopters.

February 2001: version 1.1 out.

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More History…
Recently, IEEE 803.15.1 standard for Wireless PANs (WPANs)
◦ Only MAC and PHY.

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 Goals
Open spec.
Low cost.
◦ In order to replace cables, should have similar cost.
◦ Cell phone cable is ~ $10.

Power efficiency.
Lightweight and small form factor.
Easy to use.
Reliable and resilient to failures.

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The Bluetooth Standard
Defines a protocol stack to enable heterogeneous devices to
communicate.
The Bluetooth stack includes protocols for the radio layer all the way
up to device discovery, service discovery, etc.

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Bluetooth Protocol Stack
Applications Application
RFCOMM/SDP Presentation Layer
L2CAP Session Layer
Host Controller Interface
Transport Layer
Link Manager
Network Layer
Link Controller
Data Link Layer
Baseband
PHY
RF
OSI/ISO

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Bluetooth Layers
Radio: physically transmits/receives data.
Baseband/Link Controller: controls PHY.
Link Manager: controls links to other devices.
Host Controller:e2e communication.
Logical Link Control: multiplexes/demultiplexes data from higher layers.
RFCOMM: RS323-like serial interface.
SDP: allows service discovery among Bluetooth devices.

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Radio Band
2.4 GHz license-free ISM band.
Available worldwide.
Industrial, Scientific, Medical (ISM) band.
◦ Unlicensed, globally available.
◦ Centered around 2.4 GHz.

Resilient to interference.
Frequency hopping.
Range: 10, 20, and 100m.
1MB/s.

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 Unlicensed Radio Spectrum
 33cm 12cm 5cm

26 Mhz 83.5 Mhz 125 Mhz

902 Mhz 2.4 Ghz 5.725 Ghz

928 Mhz 2.4835 Ghz 5.785 Ghz

cordless phones 802.11 unused

baby monitors Bluetooth
Wireless LANs Microwave oven

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Bluetooth Radio Link
1Mhz

. . .
12 3 79
83.5 Mhz
MA scheme: Frequency hopping spread spectrum.
◦ 2.402 GHz + k MHz, k=0, …, 78
◦ 1,600 hops per second.
◦ 1 Mb/s data rate.

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BT Radio Link (Cont’d)
Time-division duplex (TDD)
◦ Separation of Xmission and reception in time.
◦ Units alternate transmits and receives.

Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying (G-FSK) modulation.

◦ ‘1’s as positive frequency deviations from carrier frequency; ‘0’s as negative
deviations.

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Multiple Access
BT targets large number of independent communications
active in the same area at the same time.
Single FH channel: 1 Mb/s.
Each 1Mb/s channel shared by limited number of
participants.
◦ In target user scenarios, it’s unlikely that all units in-range will
share data among all of them.
◦ 1 MB/s is reasonable. (is it?)

Theoretically, total bandwidth is 79 Mb/s.

◦ In practice, < 79 Mb/s since codes are non-orthogonal.

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Baseband
Applications Control end of baseband
RFCOMM/SDP
+link controller=
Data link layer
L2CAP

Host Controller Interface

Link Manager
Carries out MAC
Link Controller
functions.
Baseband
RF

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Master and Slaves
Communicating devices must agree on hopping sequence.
BT devices can operate as masters or slaves.
Master node defines sequence to be used.
Slave units use master id to pick sequence.
Master also controls when devices are allowed to transmit.
◦ Master allocates slots to slaves.
◦ Allocates total available bandwidth among slaves.

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 Piconets
BT communication takes place over piconets.
Piconet formation initiated by master.
All other participants are slaves.
Number of participants limited to 8 (1 master and 7 slaves).
◦ Channel capacity and addressing overhead.
◦ Each slave assigned a locally unique ID.

Master/slave roles last for the duration of the piconet.

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More on Piconets
On a piconet, slaves only have direct links to master.
Point-to-point or point-to-multipoint connections.

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Piconets: Considerations
Most target applications involve local communication among small
group of devices.
Piconets with up to 8 nodes match well.
If many groups of devices active simultaneously, each group as separate
piconet.
Overlapping piconets can coexist.

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Contention-Free
Master and slaves.
Master performs medium access control.
◦ Schedules traffic through polling.

Time slots alternate between master and slave

transmission.
◦ Master-slave: master includes slave address.
◦ Slave-master: only slave chosen by master in previous master-
slave slot allowed to transmit.
◦ If master has data to send to a slave, slave polled implicitly;
otherwise, explicit poll.

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 BT States
Standby . Initially, all nodes in
Unconnected standby.
. Node (master) can begin
inquiry to find nearby
Inquiry Page
Connecting devices.
. Piconet is then formed.
Transmit Connected . Devices join by paging.
Active

Park Hold Sniff

Low power
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 Inquiry
• Device discovery
• Listeners respond
with
their address.

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 Paging Master

Active Slave
• Device enters paging
to invite others to join
Parked Slave
its piconet.
• Establishes links with Standby
nodes in proximity.
• Paging message
unicast to selected
receiver.
• Receiver sends ACK.
• Sender becomes
master, receiver slave.

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Piconet New Node
Admission
Master can actively try to discover new nodes or wait (in scan/listen
mode) to be discovered.
Communication in the current piconet suspended.
Admission latency versus piconet capacity tradeoff.

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 Bluetooth Link Formation

Point-to-point link:
◦ Master-slave relationship. m s
m
• Piconet:
– 8 units: channel capacity. s s
– Master (establishes piconet) s
can connect to up to 7
slaves.
– Master/slave relationship
lasts while link/piconet lasts.
– No slave-to-slave
communication.
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Link Types
2 types of links:
◦ Synchronous (SCO) links:
◦ Point-to-point between master and slave.
◦ Link established by reserving slots in either direction periodically.
◦ Used to carry real-time traffic (voice).
◦ Asynchronous (ACL) links:
◦ Point-to-multipoint between master and slaves.
◦ Use remaining slots on channel.
◦ Traffic scheduled by master.

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Error Control
Supports both FEC and retransmission.
FEC for SCO packets.
ARQ for ACL traffic.
◦ If no ACKs, retransmit.
◦ Stop-and-wait ARQ.
◦ Fast-ARQ: ACK included in RX slot immediately following the TX slot in which packet was sent.
◦ CRC to check for errors.

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 Packet Format
72 bits 54 bits 0 - 2744 bits
Access
Header Payload
code

No CRC
Voice header Data CRC
No retries
FEC (optional)
ARQ
625 µs
FEC (optional)

master

slave

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 Access Code
72 bits

Access Payload
Header
code

Address of piconet master.

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 Packet Header m
54 bits
s s
Access
code
Header Payload s

Purpose
Addressing (3)
Max 7 active slaves
Packet type (4)

Flow control (1) 16 packet types (some unused)

1-bit ARQ (1)

Sequencing (1) Broadcast packets are not ACKed

HEC (8)
For filtering retransmitted packets
Verify header integrity

total 18 bits
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Multiple Piconets
Piconets may overlap in space and time.
They can work independently.
◦ Each with its own hopping sequence.
◦ Packets with different access codes.

Or they can overlap, i.e., nodes can participate in more than 1 piconet.
◦ “Time sharing”.

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Scatternets
Interconnection of multiple piconets.

Slave

Master

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Scatternets (cont’d…)
Interconnection by bridge nodes.
◦ Bridge nodes are members of piconets they interconnect.
◦ Bridge node “stay” in a piconet for some time, then switch to another
piconet by changing hop sequence.
◦ Do this for all member piconets.
◦ Send and receive in each piconet.
◦ Forward from one piconet to another.

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 Link Controller and Link Manager
Applications
RFCOMM/SDP
L2CAP
Attaching/detaching slaves from
Host Controller Interface piconet; power management; security.
Link Manager
Link Controller Carries out inquiry and paging
operations; manages multiple
Baseband
links and different piconets.
RF

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Power Management
Low-power modes: prolong battery life.
◦ Devices can be turned-off when idle.
◦ Devices wake up periodically to send/receive data.

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Low-Power Operation
3 modes:
◦ Hold: node sleeps for specified interval.
◦ Master can put slaves in hold while searching for new members, attending
another piconet, etc.
◦ No ACL packets.
◦ Sniff: slave low-duty cycle mode.
◦ Slave wakes up periodically to talk to master.
◦ Fixed “sniff” intervals.
◦ Park:
◦ Very low power state.
◦ Used to admit more than 7 slaves in piconet.
◦ Slave gives up its active member address.
◦ Receives “parked” member address.
◦ Wakes up periodically listening for broadcasts which can be used to “unpark”
node.

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Security
Authentication and encryption.
LMP provides mechanisms for negotiation of encryption modes, keys,
etc.

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Host Controller Interface
Applications
Optional interface layer
RFCOMM/SDP
between higher and lower
L2CAP
layers of the BT stack.
Host Controller Interface

Link Manager
Link Controller E.g., when lower- and higher
BT layers run on different
Baseband Devices: PCMCIA card and
RF PC’s processor.
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 L2CAP
Applications
RFCOMM/SDP Logical Link Control and
L2CAP Adaptation Protocol=
Session Layer.
Host Controller Interface

Link Manager
Link Controller
L2CAP provides
Baseband • Protocol multiplexing
RF • Quality of service negotiation

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 RFCOMM/SDP
Applications
RFCOMM/SDP
L2CAP

Service discovery, serial port Host Controller Interface

interface.
Link Manager
Link Controller

Baseband
RF

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References:
Bluetooth papers in reading list.
Johansson and Gerla’s Bluetooth Tutorial at Mobicom 2001.
Bluetooth 1.1: Connect Without Cables, Bray and Sturman.

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 Bluetooth on the market:
PC cards, Cell phones, Head sets, Chip sets,…
Company Features Applications Cost
Toshiba, 20 dBm (~100 m) File Transfer, 169 $
Motorola, Point-to-multipoint Dial-Up Networking ---
Digianswer No Scatternet LAN access, Fax, … 200 $
0 dBm (~10 m) File Transfer,
IBM, TDK Point-to-multipoint Dial-Up Networking 169 $
No Scatternet LAN access, Fax, … ---
10 m user-user; File Transfer,
100 m user-Base Station Dial-Up Networking
3COM Point-to-multipoint LAN access, Fax, E-mail 149 $
SW- & FW-upgradeable Unconscious connection
10 m user-user; File Transfer,
Point-to-point Dial-Up Networking
Nokia Connectivity Battery LAN access, Fax, E-mail 149 $
for the cell phone Unconscious connection
10 m user-user;
Basic BT Radio stack
Ericsson, Point-to-point; 500 $
Embedded or Host stack
Sigma ARM processor;
Programmable 1500$
USB; RFCOMM ports
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