What is Bluetooth?

1. Bluetooth is a wireless technology.

2. It is an open specification for a low-cost, low-power, short-range radio technology for
ad-hoc wireless communication of voice and data anywhere in the world.
3. Bluetooth technology eliminates the need for numerous and inconvenient cable
attachments.
4. This technology enables users to automatically and easily connect a wide range of
computing and telecommunication devices.
5. Bluetooth makes wireless communication and networking between devices in a small
localized area.
6. In Bluetooth all the connections between devices are occurring immediately and
invisible.
7. Bluetooth is actually a standard for wireless communications between devices within a
range of 10metres.

History

1. The technology was born in 1994.

2. The first version was released July 1999.
3. The Bluetooth name comes from the Danish Viking Harald Blåtand.
4. Bluetooth was officially introduced in 1998 and its intended basic purpose was to be a
wire replacement technology in order to rapidly transfer voice and data.

Advantages (+)

1. Bluetooth Devices are Wireless

In addition to improving safety as a result of eliminating the clutter of wires and
associated hazardous connections, Bluetooth wireless technology also offers you many
convenient advantages.
2. Bluetooth Technology is Inexpensive
Bluetooth technology is cheap for companies to implement, which results in lower over-
all manufacturing Costs. These savings are then passed on to you, the consumer. The end
result: Bluetooth devices are relatively inexpensive.
3. Bluetooth is Automatic.
When two or more Bluetooth devices enter a range (Up to 30 feet) of one another, they
automatically begin to communicate without you having to do anything. The best part is:
The devices take care of the entire setup process, and you can go about your business.
4. Low Energy Consumption
Bluetooth uses low power signals. As a result, the technology requires little energy and
will therefore use less battery or electrical power.
5. Share Voice and Data
The Bluetooth standard allows compatible devices to share both voice and data
communications. For example, it is probably no surprise that a Bluetooth enabled cell
phone is capable of sharing voice communications with a compatible Bluetooth headset ,
however, the same cell phone may also be capable of establishing a GPRS connection to
the Internet. Then, using Bluetooth, the phone can connect to a laptop. The result: The
laptop is capable of surfing the web or sending and receiving email.
6. Accessible From Anywhere
Though Bluetooth has a specific range but we can access it up to very wide range and can
also use it from an unanticipated range of application from mobiles to automobiles. The
low power consumption, small size and low cost enables this technology to be used in the
tiniest of devices.

Disadvantages (-)

1.Data Rate 1.0 Mbps

Bluetooth has a low data rate (i.e.1 MBps) in comparison to infra-red(i.e.4 MBps).
2. Battery Use
This occurs mostly on your cell phone but also occurs in other technology such as music
players. You're using up more battery power when you leave your Bluetooth enabled on
your phone all day.
3. Bluetooth Internet
Throughout all devices, when using Bluetooth internet, the connection can sometimes run
very slow so Bluetooth internet is not highly suggested for all cases.
4. Short range (10 meters)
Two Bluetooth products can exchange their addresses and capabilities just after coming
within the range of about 10metres.

Bluetooth Protocol Stack

1. Bluetooth radio
a. Bluetooth devices operate on 2.4 GHz Industrial Scientific Medical band (ISM band).
b. Sending and receiving modulated bit streams.
c. Bluetooth radio is a transceiver which transmits and receives modulated electrical
signals from peer Bluetooth devices. The radio for compatibility reasons should have
some defined transmitter and receiver characteristics.
2. Baseband
a. Devices in a connection are either master or slave.
b. Communication is only possible between a master and its slaves.
c. A master and the slaves are named piconets.
d. Scatternet; multiple piconets connected together.
e. Baseband is the physical layer of the Bluetooth which manages physical channels and
links apart from other services like error correction, data whitening, hop selection and
Bluetooth security.
3. Asynchronous Connection Link (ACL)
a. It is a momentary link between master and slave.
b. No slots are reserved.
c. It is a Point to Multipoint connection.
d. Symmetric & Asymmetric links possible
e. ACL is Asynchronous Connection-Less physical link for transmitting data over the
physical channels. ACL link provides a packet switched connection between the master
and all the active slaves.
4. Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO)
a. Point to Point Full Duplex between Master & Slave
b. Established once by master & kept alive till released by Master
c. Typically used for Voice connection
d. Master reserves slots used for SCO link on the channel to preserve time sensitive
information
e. SCO is Synchronous Connection-Oriented physical link for voice-like information. It
is a symmetric, point-to-point link between the master and a specific slave. It behaves
like a circuit-switched connection.
5. Link Manager
a. Responsible for establishing, supervising and tear down connections and logical links.
b. Link controller states introduced to carry out these tasks:-
(i) Inquiry
(ii) Page Scan
c. Link Manager essentially handles link set-up, security and control. It provides services
like authentication, encryption control, power control and provides QoS capabilities. It
also manages devices in different modes (park, hold, sniff and active).
6. Logical Link Control and Adaption (L2CAP)
a. Handles multiplexing of higher level protocols.
b. Segmentation & reassembly of large packets.
c. Device discovery & QoS
d. L2CAP is the Logical Link Control and Adaptation Layer protocol. It resides in the
data link layer and provides connection-less and connection-oriented data services to
upper layer protocols with protocol multiplexing capability, segmentation and reassembly
operation and group abstractions. L2CAP permits higher level protocols and applications
to transmit and receive L2CAP data packets up to 64 Kb in length.
7. SDP
SDP is Service Discovery Protocol for applications to discover which services are
available and to determine the characteristics of those available services.
8. RFCOMM
RFCOMM is a simple transport protocol, with additional provisions for emulating the 9
circuits of RS-232 (EIATIA-232-E) serial ports over L2CAP protocol. It supports up to
60 simultaneous connections between two Bluetooth devices.
9. TCP/IP
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) provides a reliable connection between devices at
the transport layer with IP (Internet Protocol) in the network layer. IP provides protocol
multiplexing and connections based on IP addresses.
10. JINI
Jini technology provides simple mechanisms which enable devices to plug together to
form an impromptu community--a community put together without any planning,
installation, or human intervention. Each device provides services that other devices in
the community may use. These devices provide their own interfaces, which ensure
reliability and compatibility. JINI works on higher layers while Bluetooth works at much
lower layers. There are interesting opportunities to put JINI on top of Bluetooth Protocol.
11. WAP
WAP is Wireless Access Protocol is a standard for providing Internet communications
and advanced telephony services on digital mobile phones, pagers, personal digital
assistants and other wireless terminals.

Bluetooth Devices

Bluetooth will soon be enabled in everything from:

• Telephones
• Headsets
• Computers
• Cameras

Bluetooth Applications

1. Bluetooth technology connects all peripherals wirelessly

The Bluetooth technology connects all your peripherals wirelessly. Connect your pc or to
printers, scanners and other devices without the trouble of cable attachments. You can
increase your connections by connecting your keyboard wirelessly to your computer.
2. Send data, videos, images
If your digital camera is Bluetooth enabled, you can send videos, images from any
location to any location without the problem of connecting your cameras to the mobile
phone.

Bluetooth’s Future

1. Bluetooth will soon be known as Bluetooth 1.2. as they are trying to develop the
product to better fulfill the needs of consumers.
2. Many of us think that Bluetooth is going to be here to stay, but it is wrong.
3. Bluetooth will be able to complete all other wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi
networking, infra-red data association, etc.