BLUETOOTH TECHNOLOGY

By
Mohamed Azam

Lecturer: Dr. Unar

(British Institute of Technology & E-Commerce)
University of East London
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 Introduction 1
2.0 The Technology 1
2.1 Frequency Hopping 1
2.2 The Bluetooth SIG and Specifications 4
2.2.1 The Protocol Stack 6
2.2.2 Master and Slave Operation 7
2.2.3 Voice and Data Links 7
2.2.4 Power: Classes, Control and Saving 8
3.0 Applications and Profiles 9
3.1 Connections – How are they made? 9
3.2 Products 10
4.0 Compatibility 10
4.1 Interference 10
4.2 Interoperability, Testing and Qualification 11
5.0 Conclusion 11
1.0 Introduction.

What is Bluetooth? Is it the technology? Is it the applications? Is there compatibility amongst itself and other
standards? Are there products?

This article seeks to explore at an introductory level the key features of Bluetooth Technology. We shall
examine the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) and its key role in maintaining specifications of the
protocol, profiles, testing and qualification, interoperability and compatibility. It will then consider the sort of
applications and products being derived.

Figure 1: Bluetooth Logo

Where do we begin? Perhaps as early as the 10th Century, when Harald Blåtand (Bluetooth) was King of
Denmark. Whilst Nordic states were warring, he managed to unite Denmark and part of Norway into a single
kingdom. Harald was killed in 986 AD during a battle with his son. Despite dying without unifying all the
Nordic nations, his name has become synonymous with a standard aimed at unifying the worlds of
telecommunications and computing.

The Bluetooth brand is now recognized worldwide on products with short range wireless communication
capabilities. The brand is a label that is not a single company technology but is shared by many members of the
Bluetooth SIG. The brand is applied to devices implementing the Bluetooth technology, even if it says little
about the way the technology works.

2.0 The Technology.

The logo for Bluetooth is based on Runes surrounding the legend of Harald Bluetooth. Bluetooth the technology
is based on communications central to man’s own personal space. Fundamentally Bluetooth operates within the
Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band at 2.4 GHz. It is a short-range wireless communication standard
defined as cable replacement for a Personal Area Network (PAN).

A cable replacement standard has been defined because cables limit mobility of the consumer; they are
cumbersome to carry around, are easily lost or broken. Often connectors are prone to difficult to diagnose
failures; or are proprietary. To counteract these limitations Bluetooth is designed to be light and portable. It can
be embedded to take the riggers of physical knocks and shocks. It includes standards and protocols to make it
mobile, robust, reliable and not limited to one manufacturer.

The operating band also fits the goals of Bluetooth, imposing requirements as a cable replacement. The cost
needs to be comparable with cable. Reductions can be achieved by operating in the licence free 2.4 GHz ISM
band, keeping backward compatibility wherever possible lowers the cost of ownership by avoiding upgrades
and having a relaxed radio specification enables single chip integrated circuit solutions. It also needs to be as
reliable and resilient as cable and cope with errors and degradation caused by interference. For mobile devices it
must be compact, lightweight, low power and easy to use.

2.1 Frequency Hopping.

We have addressed the reasons for the Bluetooth without delving into the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the technology to
discover how it operates. For the majority of countries the ISM band used by Bluetooth is available from 2.40-

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2.4835 GHz, although some countries impose restrictions. In this band Bluetooth uses Frequency Hopping
Spread Spectrum (FHSS) techniques in order to improve its immunity from interference.

In unrestricted countries the radios hop in pseudo random sequences around all available channels, this equates
to 79 RF channels with a channel spacing of 1 MHz. Starting at a base frequency of 2402 MHz then the
frequency of the channels, f, can be expressed as:

f =2402 + n MHz

where, n, is the channel number with an integer value in the range of 0 to 78. In restricted countries a limited
frequency hopping schemes with just 23 channels is used and is catered for in the Bluetooth specification. Both
hopping schemes have a 1 MHz channel spacing making it possible to design a simple radio interface whereby
the baseband only has to specify a channel number and the radio multiplies this up to the appropriate frequency
offset.

In this FHSS scheme there are 1600 hops per second, which is a hop every 625 µs. Part of this hop timing is
taken up by the guard time of 220 µs allowing the synthesizer time to settle. The frequency hopping implements
time division multiplexing as shown in Figure 2. The basis of the scheme has the Master device transmitting in
the first 625 us slot, k, and here the Slave receives. In the next slot k = 1 the Slave is permitted to transmit and
the master listens.

f(k) f(k + 1) f(k + 2)

Master
t

Slave
t
625µ S
Figure 2: Frequency Hopping, master and slave interact on corresponding slots

The radio must be able to retune and stabilise on a new frequency within tight time constraints. This is pushed
further when establishing a connection; the hop rate can be shortened to every 312.5 us. As the radios are
constantly hopping to different radio channels, this ensures that packets affected by interference on one channel
can be retransmitted on a different frequency channel. To further enhance resilience both ARQ (Automatic
Repeat reQuest) and FEC (Forward Error Correction) form part of the specification.

One drawback with the normal hop sequence is the time taken for production testing. Bluetooth ensures
adequate frequency coverage with a test sequence allowing the radios to be tested at a faster rate.

2.2 The Bluetooth SIG and Specifications.

If the success of Bluetooth is measured by its initial interest alone then its prominence has already been assured.
Before products were on sale, hundreds of companies joined the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) and the
Bluetooth brand became recognised worldwide. Before investigating the technology further it is appropriate to
comment about the role played by the SIG, the administrative structure of which is outlined in Figure 3. With
membership of the SIG nearing 2500 members it is only right to look at how the SIG works to promote, shape
and define the specification and position Bluetooth in the market place. Positioning of the technology is
important when you consider other wireless technologies that share the same ISM band, e.g. IEEE802.11b,
HomeRF and DECT. Differentiation is key in avoiding confusion of potential users.

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Figure 3: Bluetooth SIG Administrative Structure

In 1994, Ericsson Mobile Communications began to examine alternatives to cables linking accessories with
their mobile phones. This study produced the initial specification for wireless technology, with the Bluetooth
SIG founded in February 1998 by the core promoters:

• Ericsson Mobile Communications AB.

• Intel Corp.
• IBM Corp.
• Toshiba Corp.
• Nokia Mobile Phones.

The core promoters announced the global SIG in May 1998 and invited other companies to join as Bluetooth
adopters. In July 1999 the core promoters published version 1.0 of the specification and further enlarged the
core promoter group in December 1998 with the inclusion of:

• Microsoft
• Lucent (now Agere)
• 3Com.
• Motorola.

The responsibility for the various Bluetooth specifications is in the hands of the individual technical working
groups. Once a specification reaches a version level 0.5 it is made visible to associate members. An associate
members must be recommended by a promoter, and submit a fee. When a specification reaches version 1.0 it
gets a higher level of visibility. Now adopters have visibility and any company can become an adopter by
joining the SIG, signing and submitting the membership agreement.

The Bluetooth specifications are open specifications for wireless communications that are free to download and
use; however to use it royalty free you do have to join the SIG. By joining the group you sign up to an adopter’s
agreement sharing any patents essential for implementing Bluetooth. The specifications define minimum
functionality allowing devices from different companies to communicate. They provide the following:

• Protocol definitions for interoperability

• Host controller interface
• Bearer services for higher layer protocols
• Profiles
• Qualification
• Production test
• Brand book

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The Bluetooth specifications define the concept of a Personal Area Network (PAN), what they do not provide
helps to position it in the ISM band. It is not focussed on Wide Area Networking (WAN) as it has a limited
range and currently there is no hand over mechanism, though there is a working group. They do not provide
implementation instructions at the application programming interfaces, user interfaces or a definition of
hardware and software split. Although it could be argued there is guidance in the profiles’ specification. The rest
of this section breaks down the specifications encompassing the key aspects of Bluetooth in order to explain the
features.

2.2.1 The Protocol Stack.

The Bluetooth specifications define not only a radio system but cover the underlying structure. The Core
Specification contains a software protocol stack similar to the more familiar Open Systems Interconnect (OSI)
standard reference model for communication protocol stacks. It permits applications to discover devices, the
services they offer and permission to use these services. The stack is a sequence of layers with features crossing
single or multiple layered boundaries. Figure 4 outlines the stack with each block corresponding to a Core
Specification chapter. Other remaining chapters relate to compliance requirements, test modes and test control
interface.

If we ascend the stack, we first come across the fundamental component, the radio. The radio modulates and
demodulates data for transmitting and receiving over the air. The operating band of the radio is divided into 1
MHz spaced channels with a chosen modulation scheme of Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK). Each
channel is specified to signal at 1mega symbols per second, equivalent to 1 Mb/s. Above the radio are the
Baseband and Link Controller, they are responsible for controlling the physical links via the radio, assembling
the packets and controlling the frequency hopping.

Progressing through the layers, the Link Manager (LM) controls and configures links to other devices. The Host
Controller Interface (HCI) is above the LM layer and is probably one of the most important layers to consider as
a designer. It handles communication between host and the module. The standard defines the HCI command
packets that the host uses to control the module, the event packets used by the host to inform lower protocol
layers of changes, the data packets for voice and data traffic between host and module and the transport layer
used by the HCI packets. The transport layer can be USB (H2), RS232 (H3), UART (4) or a robust proprietary
standard such as BCSP (BlueCore Serial Protocol).

The Logical Link Control and Adaptation (L2CAP) is a multiplexer, adapting data from higher layers and
converting between different packet sizes. The next 4 layers could be loosely grouped as communication
interfaces. These are RFCOMM (Radio Frequency COMMunication port) which provides an RS232 like serial
interface. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and OBject EXchange (OBEX) are responsible for providing
interfaces to other Communications Protocols. The final member of this rough grouping is the Telephony
Control protocol Specification (TCS) providing telephony services. Service Discovery Protocol (SDP) lets
devices discover the services available on another Bluetooth device.

Figure 4: The Bluetooth Protocol Stack

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The application layer is probably obvious, but the standard provides Profiles laying out rules for how
applications use the protocol stack, ensuring interoperability at application level.

2.2.2 Master and Slave Operation.

Bluetooth devices exist in small ad-hoc network configuration with the ability to operate as either master or the
slave; the specification also allows a mechanism for master and slave to switch their roles. The configurations
can be single point, which is the simplest configuration with one master and one slave. Multipoint, called a
Piconet, based on up to 7 slaves clustered around a single Master. And a third type called a Scatternet, this is a
group of Piconets effectively hubbed via a single Bluetooth device acting as a master in one Piconet and a slave
in the other Piconet. The Scatternet permits either larger coverage areas or number of devices than a single
Piconet can offer. Figure 5 outlines the different master and slave topologies permitted for networks in the
standard.

The role of the master is to control the available bandwidth between the slaves, it calculates and allocates how
often to communicate with each slave and locks them into the appropriate frequency hopping sequence. The
specification describes an algorithm that calculates the hop sequence, the seed being based on the master’s
device address and clock. In addition to hop sequence control, the master is responsible for transmit control by
dividing the network into a series of time slots amongst the net members, as part of a Time Division
Multiplexing (TDM) scheme. These time slots can consist of data and potentially additional voice traffic i.e. you
will always need a data channel before you can add a voice channel. The time slot is defined as 625 µs and all
packet traffic is allocated 1, 3 or 5 slots, grouped together in transmit and receive pairs. Prior to connection
some operations such as inquiry, paging and scanning operations may sometimes occur on half slots.

Figure 5: Point to point, Piconet and Scatternet.

2.2.3 Voice and Data Links.

Bluetooth carries communication traffic over two types of air interface links defined as Asynchronous
ConnectionLess (ACL) or Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO). During a connection the links carry voice
and data traffic in the time slots and are categorised as either time critical, as used for voice and audio, or high
speed non-time critical data with a mechanism for acknowledgement and re-transmission. The first link
established between master and slave is the ACL link and carries high speed data that is insensitive to time. It is
packet switched, as the data is sporadic in nature, asynchronous, contains asymmetric and symmetric services
and uses a polling access scheme. A master may be permitted to have a number of ACL links up to the
maximum number of slaves permitted by the specification but only one link is allowed between any two
devices.

Once an ACL has been established a SCO link can be created on top of the ACL link. The SCO link is circuit
switched, it has symmetric synchronous services and has slot reservation at fixed intervals, making it suitable
for time critical data such as voice. The specification restricts the number of SCO links that a master can support
to three. Summarising the two types of links:

ACL
• Packet constructed of a 72 bit access code, a 54 bit packet header, a 16 bit CRC and Payload data

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• Largest data packet is DH5 giving 723.2 Kb/s as highest data rate in one direction.
• Non time critical data
• Asynchronous
• Packet switched
• Polling access

SCO
• Same access code and header as ACL packets
• ARQ (Automatic Repeat reQuest) and SEQ (SEQuence) flags redundant since flow control and re-
transmissions do not apply
• Cyclic Redundancy Code (CRC) field is absent
• Payload fixed at 30 bytes, with source data of 10, 20 or 30 bytes
• Circuit switched
• Symmetric synchronous services
• Slot reservation at fixed intervals

A special case exists that mixes SCO and ACL packets. Known as the Data Voice (DV) packet it carries data
and voice on regular intervals like the SCO. The voice data has no flow control or CRC as per SCO packets,
whereas the data part of the DV packet has flow control, re-transmission of the data part is permitted and the
data part is CRC protected.

2.2.4 Power: Classes, Control and Saving.

This section is a grouping of elements influencing various forms of power control. The specification highlights
three device power classes possible for Bluetooth radios that are related to the power range of the transmitter:

• Class 1 is 100mW and up to about 100m range

• Class 2 is 2.5mW and up to about 20m range
• Class 3 is 1mW and up to about 10m range

Radios are subject to environmental influences and the Class 3 range of up to 10 metres is more likely to be 5
metres when furniture or people are in proximity of the radio. This form of power control is provided to cut
down on interference with other devices in the ISM band and obviously help prolong battery life.

The second form of power control is on the receiver side of a Bluetooth device. To enable all classes to
communicate in a Piconet without damage to the RF front ends of the lower power classes, a method for
controlling Class 1 device transmitter power is required. Transmit power control is mandatory above 4 dBm,
below this level i.e. all Class 2 and 3 modules it is optional. To implement a power control link the remote
device must implement a Receive Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI). For a transceiver wishing to take part in a
power controlled link it must be able to measure its own receiver signal strength and determine if the transmitter
on the other side of the link should increase or decrease its output power level. The RSSI makes this possible.
Power control is specified is as a golden receive power, defined as a range with a low limit and a high limit. The
RSSI must have a minimum dynamic range equal to this range. The RSSI must have an absolute accuracy of
±4dB or better when the receiver signal power is –60 dBm. In addition, a minimum range of 20....6 dB must be
covered, starting from –60 dB and up. The instructions to alter the transmitter power are carried in the Link
Manager Protocol (LMP) link.

The last form of power control relates to the power consumption. The Hold, Sniff and Park modes are power
saving modes set out in the specification aiming to preserve battery consumption. The Hold mode is typically
used when a master is establishing a link with a new device and requires the other slaves to temporarily halt
their transmissions. The Sniff mode puts slaves into a low duty cycle mode of operation but is still an active
member of the Piconet and the master can only transmit after a ‘sniff’ interval. In Park mode slaves enters a low
duty cycle mode of operation and are no longer an active members of the Piconet.

3.0 Applications and Profiles.

Undeniably the ideal candidate for the first wave of applications will inevitably be based on mobile cellular
technology, but what other applications can be realised using Bluetooth technology? The specifications outline a
wireless technology that is as cost effective as the cable it replaces and aim to balance reliability, resilience,

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convenience and low power. The short-range connections of data and voice could mean the emergence of
applications suitable for:

• Access points allowing mobile devices connection to services e.g. telephone network (PSTN) or LAN
services.
• Mobile phone link to Laptop PCs
• Mobile phone connections to wireless headsets
• PDA, palmtop and desktop PC inter accessibility for file and data synchronisation.

The Bluetooth core specification describes the protocol, but the Profiles document enhances this by setting out a
number of profiles for applications and defining the way a number of services operate e.g. a file transfer profile
defines how devices exchange data files. The profile document aids applications development, describing
implementation schemes and highlights parts of the core Bluetooth protocol supporting the profile. Profiles
supported are outlined in Figure 6; they are depicted grouped together. Each profile is built upon the one
underneath, attaining their features from the lower profiles. The result of this approach gives the profiles a
similar look and feel for user recognition. Plus developers can recycle modules for speeding up development
time and reducing costs.

A wireless headset for a mobile phone is an application example using the profiles. It uses the Headset profile as
its core specification. In Figure 6 the Headset profile is built from the Serial Port Profile (SPP) and the Generic
Access Profile (GAP). The GAP being the base of all profiles, it defines the generic procedures related to device
discovery and link management.

Figure 6: Bluetooth Profiles.

3.1 Connections – How are they made?

As applications need to connect to one another it is probably appropriate to introduce how devices connect to
each other. Unlike the wired technology it is designed to replace, a Bluetooth device does not have to be aware
of the devices and capabilities they are attaching to. There is a built in mechanism to inquire for devices,
connect to them and once connected discover the services they possess in their database. In its simplest form the
devices needing to connect proceed as follows:

1) The master enters inquiry mode and sends out an inquiry to discover devices available to connect to.
2) Potential slaves make themselves discoverable by entering inquiry scan mode and listen for an inquiry from
a master.
3) On receiving an inquiry, the slave responds to the master with a Frequency Hop Synchronisation packet
(FHS). The FHS contains information that is needed to create a connection to the device; this information
includes its Bluetooth address and class of device.
4) The master collects the FHS information from each device discovered. To connect to one of these devices
the master goes into page mode and will page the device using the corresponding Bluetooth address.
5) The slave being paged by a master will need to be in page scan mode to be able to connect to a master

This is a simplified overview of steps the link controller uses to make a connection. The specification describes
various parameters that can be set, examples being the number of inquiry responses from slaves to the master,
the length and number of inquiry scans the master issues. Devices do not need to carry out the full set of inquiry,
inquiry scan, page and page scan. For instance some devices may not scan for inquiries, thus making them

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invisible, or they may be set up to only page scan so they can be connected to only one specific master. Perhaps
a master device may not go into page scan mode, as it may only need to page or inquire. As entering any mode
necessitates the turning on of RF circuitry then limiting options reduces power consumption as this is a major
influence on power consumption, so missing out a few of these modes has an advantage.

Once a connection is created between two devices, the application can use the Service Discovery Protocol
(SDP) to find out what particular services a device supports. This is done via a L2CAP channel to the service
discovery server. The potential Bluetooth Services available sit on top of the Bluetooth protocol stack. In real
terms, before the service can be accessed and used, the lower levels must be connected, i.e. an ACL must be
connected and configured.

3.2 Products.

In the previous section the importance of profiles in the development of applications and how these applications
get access to the service running on top of the Bluetooth protocol stack was explored. To truly appreciate the
products that could be realised with Bluetooth technology, then a trip to the Bluetooth website is a good starting
point. Look at the products that have been qualified already. As the technology matures more applications will
emerge within the Personal Area Network using profiles as their building blocks. We will certainly see the PDA
that is placed in the vicinity of your desktop computer and files synchronised between them. This latter concept
extending to your digital stills camera when downloading your holiday photos without the palaver of connecting
the inevitable miniature cable.

The wireless headset to mobile phone contains a speaker and microphone and connects over a Bluetooth link
permitting voice and data communications. The RF power for this link is significantly lower than the power
required by the mobile phone to connect to its base station. Therefore from a health hazard, it is preferable to
have the Bluetooth headset with its small RF power next to your head than the phone.

4.0 Compatibility.

Compatibility covers various issues, whether it is compatibility with other Bluetooth devices, the specification
or other systems that share the same frequency band. We will examine some of these aspects here.

4.1 Interference.

Bluetooth is subject to interference from two types of emitters, as well as environmental problems. The emitters
break down to intentional emitters and accidental emitters. Intentional emitters occupy the ISM band and are
systems based on IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi), Home RF, DECT variants, proprietary systems and of course other
Bluetooth devices. Accidental emitters include microwave ovens and lighting. The third source of interference
could be the environment, signals can fade due to distance or being blocked by walls, furniture and human
bodies; device positioning could be critical.

How is the affect of these forms of interference minimised? With respect to the intentional emitters, Bluetooth
has a clear advantage over systems based on Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) systems such as
IEEE802.11b as it is based on a FHSS system. What makes the DSSS poor in comparison is that transmission
power is often low in any specified band. The FHSS signal may have high enough power in its narrower band to
effectively ‘punch through’ the parts of the wider band occupied by the DSSS system. Otherwise, if there is
strong interference from the DSSS system on Bluetooth, its ability to hop utilises the rest of the band more
effectively. Bluetooth allows for retries meaning data will eventually get through, so users will see a decrease in
the throughput of the network but it will continue to operate. The major degradation is in audio quality as voice
data transmitted on a SCO channel is not retransmitted, as it is time critical.

HomeRF is another FHSS system and you could be lucky that both systems could hop around and miss each
other. But HomeRF with greater data rates has larger channel sizes and therefore Bluetooth has a greater chance
of hitting these on a hop. HomeRF covers a larger distance potentially over powering the Bluetooth on the
channels where they clash. With retry available eventually data will get through, although performance
degrades. HomeRF on the other hand has built features in its higher layers of protocol and it has MAC level
retry mechanism both for data and isochronous voice connections. This though all comes at a cost, whereas
Bluetooth radio is designed for simplicity.

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Against other intentional emitters and accidental emitters the techniques for co-existence with IEEE 802.11b
and HomeRF are just as applicable i.e. the ability to hop away from offending channels and retry are
Bluetooth’s natural defence.

4.2 Interoperability, Testing and Qualification.

In the interests of interoperability the Bluetooth SIG has provided a qualification process that is a series of tests
examining a device’s functionality and verifies that it conforms to the Bluetooth specification and associated
profiles. By passing the qualification process, the manufacturer is granted a free license to use the Bluetooth
patents in the product and the Bluetooth brand on their products. One of the more fruitful options open to
Bluetooth manufacturers is the regularly scheduled ‘Unplug Fests’. These are scheduled meetings of the
Bluetooth technical community, where products are tested against each other for interoperability. These can be
extremely useful for early adopters whose products appear before main testing programs are underway, or for
clearing up any inherent misunderstanding of the specification, especially at the profile level.

RF performance of a radio is sensitive to the manufacturing process, often taking it out of specification. The
Bluetooth core specification provides a test mode enabling efficient production line testing, aiding test
equipment manufacturers to produce production test equipment compatible with all Bluetooth devices.

The Bluetooth specification allows inter device communications to be secure through the use of encrypted links,
that can be turned on and off as required. Link keys are shared between required devices and to be interoperable
in this encrypted process, devices must possess the correct link keys.

5.0 Conclusion.

This was an overview of Bluetooth giving insight to the key features and potential challenges of the technology.
The technology occupies the 2.4 GHz ISM band sharing the bandwidth with potential competing standards. It
defines a Personal Area Network (PAN) whereas others advocate a Wide Area Network (WAN) approach. It is
best positioned as a short-range wireless standard designed with the same cost goals and similar or greater
reliability and performance as the cable it replaces. Based on a frequency agile FHSS scheme it leverages
hopping to avoid interference and it was not intended as a replacement for wireless LAN in a WAN scenario,
because as yet it does not fully specify a hand over mechanism.

The importance of the Bluetooth SIG and how its specifications aid development of applications was
highlighted, especially through the profiles, and their interoperability is assured through the qualification
process. A flavour of the applications was explored through the functionality and where particular attention
must be paid to the protocol stack for system segmentation. But to thoroughly investigate Bluetooth a list of
further reading and applicable websites is given in the reference section. The latest specifications including the
profiles are available from the Bluetooth SIG website. Reading specifications can seem a little ‘one
dimensional’ but read in conjunction with a good book, whilst using a development tool from one of the
Bluetooth silicon vendors, then the jigsaw pieces to really start to fit.

In conclusion, if we allow PCs a cornucopia of competing, serial cable standards hanging from them surely
there must be room for differing wireless standards to co-exist to cover various functionalities.

References.

• http://www.bluetooth.com
• http://www.opengroup.org/bluetooth
• http://www.csr.com
• http://www.homerf.org
• http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/main
• J. Bray and C.F. Sturman, “Bluetooth: Connect Without Cables”, Prentice Hall.

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