MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

WI-FI AND BLUETOOTH

SPECIFICATIONS AND AREA OF APPLICATION
BY COMPARISON.

prepared for

DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKING

ECP2056

TRIMESTER 3 (2003/2004)

prepared by

NAME: ZULAKMAR HAZWAN BIN ZULKHEFLI

ID: 1011103422
EMAIL: zulakmar@maxis.net.my
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Table of Content
Table of Content...................................................................................................................................... 1
Abstract................................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 2
Wireless Fidelity: IEEE 802.11b.............................................................................................................. 3
The Architecture .............................................................................................................................. 3
The Basic Service Set (BSS)..................................................................................................... 3
Extended Service Set (ESS)...................................................................................................... 4
Services ........................................................................................................................................... 4
The Physical Layer .......................................................................................................................... 4
HR-DSSS................................................................................................................................. 5
Modulation and Data Rate for HR-DSSS .................................................................................. 5
MAC Layer ..................................................................................................................................... 5
CSMA/CA ............................................................................................................................... 5
MAC Frames............................................................................................................................ 6
Addressing Mechanism.................................................................................................................... 7
Blueetooth: IEEE 802.15 ......................................................................................................................... 7
The Architecture .............................................................................................................................. 7
Piconets.................................................................................................................................... 7
Scatternet ................................................................................................................................. 7
Bluetooth Layer ............................................................................................................................... 8
The Services .................................................................................................................................... 9
Application of Wifi and Bluetooh .......................................................................................................... 10
Let’s Robot Alive, The Application of Wi-Fi in AIBO ................................................................... 10
Bluetooth: Digital Pen.................................................................................................................... 11
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 12
Appendix A: CSMA/CA Flow Chart ..................................................................................................... 13
Appendix B: Wi-Fi Addressing Mechanism........................................................................................... 14
Appendix C: Bluetooth - TDMA ........................................................................................................... 15
Appendix D: Wireless Importance ......................................................................................................... 16
Appendix E: Other applications ............................................................................................................. 17
Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................... 18
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Wi-Fi and Bluetooth:

Specifications and Area of Application by Comparison.

Abstract
Wireless data networks connect devices without cables. Wi-Fi is one of wireless standards, which is
designed for high-speed wireless network with ability to transmit data at speeds up to 11 megabits per
second. Whereas, Bluetooth is the standard used to connect devices of different functions. Both standards
categorize as IEEE 802 standard family where Wi-Fi is IEEE 802.11b and Bluetooth is IEEE 802.15.
Even both are in the same family, yet since both come from difference working group, there are some
different between them for some purpose. This paper is discussing briefly the Wi-Fi technology and the
Blueetooth technology and also their applications.

Introduction
Cables are needed to link devices like computers and printers, and traditional computer networks. For
someway of networking, cables are expensive to install especially when it needs to deploy in walls,
ceilings or floors. Here, the introduction of wireless data networks help in improving the networking
technology application and safe some cost. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are the two most popular network
standards and widely used for LAN network architecture.

Wi-Fi is a certification for IEEE 802.11b systems, awarded by the Wireless Ethernet
Compatibility Alliance (WECA). Wi-Fi able to transmit data at speeds up to 11Mbps over wireless data
links. Wi-Fi is more than 5 times faster than prior-generation wireless data solutions and its performance
is more than adequate for most business applications. Users or consumers benefit from this standard as
they are not locked into one vendor’s solution. Wi-Fi certified access points and client devices are
available in the market and compatible to use the devices on any IEEE802.11b+ networks.

Bluetooth was originally started as a project by the Ericsson Company. It is named for Harald
Blaatand, the King of Denmark(940-981) who united Denmark and Normay. Bluetooth technology is the
implementation of a protocol defined by the IEEE 802.15 standard. The standard defines a wireless
personal-area network (PAN) operable in an area the size of a room or a hall.
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Wireless Fidelity: IEEE 802.11b

Term Wi-Fi is come from the term Wireless Fidelity. The term promulgated by Wi-Fi Alliance. To be
more specific, Wi-Fi is a refer to network devices that use standard IEEE 802.11b for wireless local area
network(WLAN). WLAN can be found on education institutions, offices and public areas. WLAN usually
connects the end-user to the internet.

The Architecture
Since Wi-Fi is IEEE 802.11 family, it is good to know the architecture of the protocol in general. IEEE
802.11 describes the physical and data link layers.

IEEE 802.11 defines two kinds of services, which are as follow:

i. the basic service set (BSS)
ii. the extended service set (ESS)

The Basic Service Set (BSS)

BSS is the building block of a wireless LAN and it is made of stationary or mobile wireless station and a
possible central base station, known as the access point(AP).

Basically we have two sets of network by referring BSS, which are as follow:
i. BSS without AP
For this set, it is what is called ad hoc architecture which explained that it is a stand-alone
network and cannot send data to other BSSs. Stations form a network without need of an
AP, so that the stations
locate each other and
agree to be part of a
BSS.

ii. BSS with AP

Every station in this set of network communicate trough an AP and for this reason, they
able to send data to other BSS as well. Two and more of this set network will build a
service called Extended Service Set (ESS).
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Extended Service Set (ESS)

Two or more BSSs with APs build an extended service set

(ESS). BSSs that are connected to wired LAN is called a
distribution system. It is not restricted to any LAN standards so
it can be connected to an Ethernet. ESS uses two types of
stations: mobile station, normal stations inside a BSS, and stationary station, Access Point stations that
part of a wired LAN.

Services
Since Wi-Fi is one of the IEEE 802.11 workgroup, Wi-Fi only differ from IEEE 802.11 in its Physical
Layer yet has same services. There are nine services specified by IEEE 802.11. Six of the services are
used to support MAC Service Data Unit (MSDU) delivery between stations. Three of the services are
used to control IEEE 802.11 LAN access and confidentiality. The following are description of the
services:

i. Distribution of messages within Distribution System (DS)

To deliver the message within the DS in such a way that it arrives at the appropriate DS
destination for the intended recipient.
ii. Services that support the DS
Describe and support the mobility of a message and relates to message transition.
iii. Access and confidentiality control services
Provided to make sure the Wi-Fi functionality in line with wired LAN assumptions such as
authentication (to prevent unauthorized access) and privacy (encrypt-decrypt the content of
messages)

The Physical Layer

IEEE 802.11 defines specification for the conversion of bits to a signal in the physical layer (PHY). Wi-Fi
is allocated as IEEE 802.11b HR-DSSS, which describes the high-rate DSSS (HR-DSSS). The method is
used to generate signal in a 2.4GHz ISM band.
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HR-DSSS

It is different in encoding method comparing to DSSS. The encoding method is called complementary
code keying (CCK). CCK encodes 4 or 8 bits to one CCK symbol.

Modulation and Data Rate for HR-DSSS

There are two defined data rate: 5.5 and 11Mbps. The 5.5Mbps version uses BPSK and transmit at
1.375Mbaud/s with 4bit CCK encoding. The 11Mbps version uses QPSK and transmits at 1.375Mbps
with 8bit CCK encoding.

MAC Layer
IEEE 802.11 MAC sublayers are the distributed coordination
function (DCF) and point coordination function (PCF). The layer
structure is as shown in figure. PCF is optional and applicable to Figure 3: MAC Layer
infrastructure network, not ad hoc network, since it is a complex access
method. DCF is similar to Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance. (CSMA/CA).

CSMA/CA
Network performance can be maximized by minimized the chance of collision. CSMA requires that each
station first listen to the medium before sending.

After CSMA/CA finds the line idle, the station waits an interframe gap (IFG) amounts if time. It
then waits another random amount of time. After that, it sends the frame and sets a timer. The station
waits for an acknowledgement (ACK) from the receiver. If it receives the acknowledgement before the
timer expires, the transmission is successful. If the station does not receive an AC, it knows that
something is wrong, which is either the frame is lost or the ACK is lost. The station increments the value
of the backoff parameter, waits for a backoff amount of time, and resences the line.

(please refer to appendix A for CSMA/CA flow chart)

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MAC Frames

2 bytes 2 bytes 6 bytes 6 bytes 6 bytes 2 bytes 6 bytes 0 to 2312 bytes 4 bytes
FC D Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 SC Address 4 Frame Body FCS

Protocol To From More Pwr More

Type Subtype Retry WEP Rsvd
Version DS DS flag Mgt Data
2 bits 2 bits 4 bits 1 bit 1 bit 1 bit 1 bit 1 bit 1 bit 1 bit 1 bit
Figure 4: Frame Format
MAC layer frame has nine fields (as shown in figure) and the most important six frame are described as
follow:
i. Frame Control (FC) – 2bytes long and defines the type of the frame and some control
information. The following table describes the sub fields of FC.
Field Explanation
Protocol version Current version is 0.
Type of information carried – management(00), control (01) or data
Type
(10)
Subtype Control frame subtype information
To DS
Refer to To/From DS Table
From DS
More flag 1 means more fragments
Retry 1 means retransmitted frame
Pwr Mgt 1 means station is in power management mode.
Mode data 1 means station has more data to send.
WEP 1 means encryption implemented
Rsvd Reserved

ii. D – defines the duration of the transmission that is used to set the value of NAV.
iii. Addresses – 6bytes long, defines the address for communication
iv. Sequence Control – defines the sequence number of the frame to be used in flow control.
v. Frame body – between 0 and 2312 bytes contains information
vi. FCS – 4 bytes long and contains CRC-32 error detection sequence

IEEE 802.11 has three categories of frames, which are described as follow:
i. Management frames – used for the initial communication between station and access points.
ii. Control frames – used for accessing the channel and ACK frames.
Subtype Meaning
1011 Request to send (RTS)
1100 Clear to send (CTS)
1101 Acknowledge (ACK)

iii. Data frames – used for carrying data and control information.
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Addressing Mechanism
Wi-Fi has a complicated addressing, which has 4 cases defined by the value of the two flags in the FC
field, To DS and From DS, the values are describes in the table below:

To DS From DS Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Address 4

0 0 DS SS BSS ID N/A Table 1:
0 1 DS SAP SS N/A
1 0 RAP ST DS N/A Addresses
1 1 RAP SAP DS SS
DS=Destination Station, ST=Source Station, SAP=Sending AP, RAP=Receive AP

(please refer to appendix B for diagram)

Blueetooth: IEEE 802.15

Bluetooth is a wireless LAN (WLAN) which is designed to connect devices of different functions.
Bluetooth is an ad hoc network, the network can be established spontaneously. IEEE 802.15 describes
Bluetooth as a wireless personal area network (PAN) operable in an area the size of a room or a hall.
However, most available Bluetooth devices are working for connection in 10 meters long.

The Architecture
Bluetooth has two types of network- piconets and scatternet.

Piconets
Also named as small net. This network can have eight
stations – 1 master(cannot more than one) and 7 slaves.
All the slave stations synchronize their clocks and hopping
sequence with master station. Additional eight slaves can
available in a piconet but it just in the parked state, a state
that the device synchronized with master but cannot take
part in communication until it is moved from the state.

Scatternet

The combination between piconets introduce scatternet,

when a slave station become the master in another piconet.
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Bluetooth Layer

The layer for Bluetooth are different from other layer designs. The layer described as shown in
figure. The function of every layer are defined as follow:
i. Radio Layer – similar to PHY layer. Bluetooth are low-power and have short range
(10m). It uses a 2.4GHz ISM band divided into 79channels of 1MHz each. Bluetooth
uses GFSK to transform bits into a signal. Bit 1 and 0 arerepresented by a frequency
deviation above and below the carrier, respectively.
ii. Baseband Layer – Time Division Duplexing TDMA is used and it is a kind of half-
duplex yet uses different hops for each direction. For single-slave communication, the
time is divided into 625us slot, master and slave use even and odd numbered slot,
respectively. For multiple-slave communication, even master uses even numbered
slot, but a slave uses next odd-numbered slot that the packet in the previous slow was
addressed to it. (Please refer C to appendix for figure).
Physical Layer - PHY Links in this layer uses Synchronous Connection-Oriented
(SCO) links and Asynchronous Connectionless (ACL) links, which SCO used when
avoding latency is more important than integrity yet ACL is vice versa.

Frame format – In baseband layer, there are three types – one-slot, three-slot and five-slot.

Type Total Frame Exchange Last Duration Size

One-slot 625us 259us 366us 366bits
Table 2:
Three-slot 1875us 259us 1616us 1616bits
Five-slot 3125us 259us 2866us 2866bits
Frame Set Size

Figure 5:
Frame Set

Field Function
Access code 72bits field contains synchronization bits and the identifier of the master to distuiguish the
frame of one picornet from another
Header 54bits where has 3bit address, 4bit of type, 1 bit F(flow control-1 for full buffer), 1bit ACK(Stop-
Wait ARQ), 1bit S (sequence-also use Stop-Wait ARQ) and 8 bit HEC (error correction-
checksum)
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iii. Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP) – used for data exchange on an ACL
link. It defines the size of data in bytes in its length field and channel ID defines identifier for
virtual channel. More explanation in next section.

Figure : L2CAP data

packet format

The Services
L2CAP supplies services. L2CAP has several duties as following:
i. Multiplexing – at the sender site, L2CAP accepts data from one of the upper layer protocols,
frames them and deliver them to baseband layer for delivery. At the receiver it is doing the
reserve process: accept, and extract.
ii. Segmentation and Reassembly – L2CAP devides large packets into segments and adds extra
information to define of the segments in the original packet. It also reassembles data back to
normal
iii. QoS – Stands for quality of service. Bluetooth detect the quality of line as
measurement/consideration.
iv. Group Management – allow devices to create a type of logical address between stations.

Figure: Bluetooth Layer

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Application of Wifi and Bluetooth

Let’s Robot Alive, The Application of Wi-Fi in AIBO

AIBO is Sony's
Entertainment Robot. The
name AIBO is derived form
the words "A.I." (Artificial
Intelligence), and roBOt.
Also, in Japanese, "aibo"
means "companion" or "pal".

AIBO is installed with

WLAN enabled. By using a
PC and wireless network
(IEEE 802.11b), people can
remotely control the ERS-7. View pictures the ERS-7 takes remotely and send e-mail commands to have
the ERS-7 play pre-recorded messages and songs to others at home.

Wireless LAN capability allows people to view up to 20 pictures ERS-7 has taken from PC. Photos are
JPEG format (416 x 320). By sending e-mail commands to ERS-7, it can take pictures on command or at
customized intervals and automatically e-mail them back. Photo is in 208 x 160 pixels jpeg format when
it is sent. Send e-mail commands to ERS-7 and have it play pre-recorded messages or songs to others at
home.

To communicate with AIBO for features stated above, a proper connection is need which are require both
a broadband Internet Connection and a wireless router or access point with IEEE 802.11b connectivity.
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Bluetooth: Digital Pen

Today, digital world bring us an

introduction of digital pen, not only
similar to normal pen but Nokia
Digital Pen also has Wireless
Connection to compatible with
Figure: Nokia Digital Pen with
mobile phones. As easy to use a
Bluetooth Compatible.
normal pen, the pen memorizes
what ever written and transfers the memory into a mobile phone through its Bluetooth compatibility
features. If you need to transfer to a PC, you can use USB cable. Run on Rechargeable Li-Polymer
Battery pack with dimension 149mm X 23mm X 20mm , it looks so cool in your hand while writing even
in your black suite pocket - elegant. Currently, it can be use together with Nokia 3650, Nokia 6650, Nokia
7650, and other phones supporting Bluetooth. Specification 1.1 (GAP,
SPP, OPP and DUN profiles). With these mobile phone, you can jot
anything down and send the message through MMS as gif image. As it
works digitally, you can make your message colorful.
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Conclusion
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are powerful wireless standards respective to their own functionality. They are made
difference to suite with difference application. Accordingly to their area of application, we can conclude
that Wi-Fi is used for high-speed data rate and long range wireless networking, and Bluetooth is used for
a connection that won’t need high-speed data rate and short range.

The introduction of Wireless Networking especially the revolutionary of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
development brought the digital world closer to the application of radio wave. Not only because both are
cordless, but there are indeed for some situation when wired-network is imposible.

The following table concludes, the comparison between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.:

Wi-Fi Bluetooth
IEEE Workgroup 802.11b 802.15
Band 2.4GHz ISM
Maximum Data Rate 11Mbps 1Mbps
Connectivity Multiple connection Maximum of 8
(Unlimited between an AP to stations) (Master to slaves)
Often application Computer Networking Devices to Device
Network Topology WLAN PAN
Architecture BSS(with and without AP) and ESS Piconets, Scatternet
Range 100m 10m
Power Normal Low
Table 4: Comparison of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
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Appendix A: CSMA/CA Flow Chart

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Appendix B: Wi-Fi Addressing Mechanism

Case 1 – To DS = 0, From DS = 0

Case 2 – To DS = 0 , From DS = 1

Case 3 – To DS = 1, From DS = 0

Case 4 – To DS = 1, From DS = 1
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Appendix C: Bluetooth - TDMA

Figure: Single-slave communication

Figure: Multiple-slave communication

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Appendix D: Wireless Importance

Wireless network may be the ideal solution for some reason such as when the use of cables is impossible
or not practical. Buildings may be old or wall solid, sometimes cabling cannot be laid across a hallway to
another office. The use of cables also would be messy and congested. For these possible situations,
deployment of wireless networks is more practical.

For mobile users, wireless network is fundamental needs. Mobile users need connectivity
anywhere and they do not want to carry cables anywhere. While they are in client offices, in café and
while traveling on train, they want connectivity to be easy. Wireless network is an excellent strategy to
attract this group of people. As example, Starbuck Coffee and Sans Francisco Coffee supply wireless
Internet ready within their outlets. Most airport also provide wireless network.

Existing network can be extended wisely by using wireless network. For example to extend the
existing network origin at 20th floor Tower A KLCC to 15th floor Tower B KLCC. For this situation,
cabling is impossible and wireless network is the best solution. Connecting an access point to the network
can extend the existing network. The new office now is network enabled by sharing the same network
through wireless connection to the access point.

Beside all discussed above, wireless networks are simple, quick and inexpensive to deploy. This
lead the wireless networks to be called as an ad hoc networking. Users are able to share files and
resources from anywhere and this provide a comfortable access for anyone to use the network wherever
and whenever they need even for temporary.
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Appendix E: Other applications

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Bibliography

1. Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/ , 1999.

2. The Official Bluetooth Website , http://www.bluetooth.com , 2004

3. SONY AIBO, http://www.aibo.com , updated 2003

4. Nokia, http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,4879,5794,00.html 2004

5. The Official Bluetooth Membership Site, http://www.bluetooth.org , 2004

6. The Official Wi-Fi Website, http://www.wi-fi.org , 2004

7. Chapter 15, Forouzan, Data Communication and Networking , 3rd Edition, 2004