BLUETOOTH

ARCHITECTURE AND
PROTOCOL STACK
ADHWAITH K A
M2 CSE
BLUETOOTH LAYERS AND PROTOCOL STACK
• Bluetooth fills small niche of very short range communication between mobile phones,
notebook computers and other peripheral devices.
• Bluetooth is often categorised as personal area network because the communicating devices
typically belong to one individual or group and has a range of 10m.
• The basic Bluetooth network configuration, called a piconet.
• It consists of a master device and up to seven slave devices. Any communication is between
the master and a slave; the slaves do not communicate directly with each other.
• It uses frequency hopping to deal with interference in the communication band
• A slave device can be parked: set to an inactive, low-power state. A parked device cannot
communicate on the piconet; it can only be reactivated by the master
BLUETOOTH ARCHITECTURE
LAYER 1 :RADIO LAYER

• The Bluetooth radio layer corresponds to the physical layer of OSI model.
• It deals with transmission and modulation.
• The radio layer moves data from master to slave or vice versa..
• This band is divided into 79 channels of 1MHz each. Bluetooth uses the Frequency Hopping Spread
Spectrum (FHSS) method in the physical layer to avoid interference from other devices or networks.
• Bluetooth hops 1600 times per second, i.e. each device changes its modulation frequency 1600 times
per second.
• In order to change bits into a signal, it uses a version of FSK called GFSK i.e. FSK with Gaussian
bandwidth filtering.
LAYER 2 : BASEBAND LAYER

• Baseband layer is equivalent to the MAC sublayer in LANs.

• Bluetooth uses a form of Time division multiple access TDMA called TDD-
TDMA (time division duplex TDMA).
• Master and slave stations communicate with each other using time slots.
• The master in each piconet defines the time slot of 625 µsec.
• In TDD- TDMA, communication is half duplex in which receiver can send and
receive data but not at the same time.
• If the piconet has only one slave; the master uses even numbered slots (0, 2, 4, …) and the slave
uses odd-numbered slots (1, 3, 5, …. ). Both master and slave communicate in half duplex
mode. In slot 0, master sends & secondary receives; in slot 1, secondary sends and primary
receives.

• If piconet has more than one slave, the master uses even numbered slots. The slave sends in the
next odd-numbered slot if the packet in the previous slot was addressed to it.

• In Baseband layer, two types of links can be created between a master and slave.

• These are:

 Asynchronous Connection-less (ACL)

 Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO)

 Asynchronous Connection-less (ACL)

• It is used for packet switched data that is available at irregular intervals.

• ACL delivers traffic on a best effort basis. Frames can be lost & may have to be
retransmitted.
• A slave can have only one ACL link to its master.

 Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO)

• SCO is used for real time data such as sound. It is used where fast delivery is preferred over
accurate delivery.
• In a SCO link, a physical link is created between the master and slave by reserving specific
slots at regular intervals.
• Damaged packet; are not retransmitted over SCO links.
• A slave can have three SCO links with the master and can send data at 64 Kbps.
LAYER 3 : LINK MANAGER PROTOCOL
• The Link Manager is responsible for managing the physical details for Bluetooth
connections.
• It is responsible for creating the links, monitoring their health, and terminating them
gracefully upon command or failure.
• The link manager is implemented in a mix of hardware and software.
• The Link Manager carries out link setup, authentication, link configuration and other
protocols.
• It discovers other remote LM’s and communicates with them via the Link Manager
Protocol (LMP).
LAYER 4 : HOST CONTOLLER INTERFACE
• This is the layer of the stack that contains the firmware i.e. the software that actually
controls all the activities happening in the Baseband and Radio layers.
• It provides a common interface between the Bluetooth host and a Bluetooth module.
• It manages the hardware links with the scatternets. It also contains the drivers for the
hardware devices used in the connection.
• Basically the BIOS is loaded in the HCI Layer.
LAYER 5 : LOGICAL LINK, CONTROL ADAPTATION
PROTOCOL LAYER (L2CAP)

• The logical unit link control adaptation protocol is equivalent to logical link
control sublayer of LAN.
• The ACL link uses L2CAP for data exchange but SCO channel does not use it.
• The various function of L2CAP is:
Segmentation and reassembly
• L2CAP receives the packets from upper layers and divides them into frames for
transmission. It adds extra information to define the location of frame in the
original packet.
• The L2CAP reassembles the frame into packets again at the destination.
 Multiplexing

• L2CAP performs multiplexing at sender side and demultiplexing at receiver side.

• At the sender site, it accepts data from one of the upper layer protocols frames them and
deliver them to the Baseband layer.
• At the receiver site, it accepts a frame from the baseband layer, extracts the data, and
delivers them to the appropriate protocol1ayer.

 Quality of Service (QOS)

• L2CAP handles quality of service requirements, both when links are established and
during normal operation.
• It also enables the devices to negotiate the maximum payload size during connection
establishment.
LAYER 6 : RADIO FREEQUENCY COMMUNICATION

• RFCOMM takes care of the communication channel between two devices or

between a master and a slave.
• RFCOMM basically has to accommodate two kinds of devices:
1. Communication end-points such as computers or printers.
2. Devices that are a part of communication channel such as Modems.

LAYER 7 :SERVICE DISCOERY PROTOCOL (SDP)

• The service discovery protocol (SDP) provides a means for applications to discover which
services are available and to determine the characteristics of those available services.
• The service discovery protocol defined in the Bluetooth specification is intended to address
the unique characteristics of the Bluetooth environment.
• SDP is very important when devices from different companies and from different parts of
the world are brought together. The devices try to recognize each other through SDP.
Telephony Control Protocol Spec (TCS)
• Basic function of this layer is to call control (setup & release) and group management
for gateway serving multiple devices.

Application Program Interface (API) libraries

• These are software modules which connect the host application program to the
Bluetooth communications system.
FRAME FORMAT
• Access Code: It is 72 bit field that contains synchronization bits. It identifies the master.
• Header: This is 54-bit field, It contain 18 bit pattern that is repeated for 3 time. The header
field contains following subfields:
• Address: This 3 bit field can define up to seven slaves (1 to 7). If the address is zero, it
is used for broadcast communication from primary to all secondaries.
• Type: This 4 bit field identifies the type of data coming from upper layers.
• F: This flow bit is used for flow control. When set to 1, it means the device is unable to
receive more frames.
• A: This bit is used for acknowledgement.
• S: This bit contains a sequence number of the frame to detect retransmission. As stop
and wait protocol is used, one bit is sufficient.
• Checksum: This 8 bit field contains checksum to detect errors in header.
• Data Field: This field can be 0 to 2744 bits long. It contains data or control information
coming from upper layers
States/Mode of Bluetooth: –
• Active mode: It enables master slave communication (limited to 7 devices).
• Hold mode: It frees the slave for a predetermined one time old period.
• Sniff mode: It frees the slave for predetermined, recurring fixed time periods.
• Park mode: It enables a master to connect to as many as 255 devices in addition to 7 active
devices.(It is a process of temporarily deactivating a device to allow its active member
addresses to be removed or probably re-assigned)