REPORT ON BLUETOOTH NETWORKING

SUBMITTED BY SUBASH PANDEY (ICE 2010/11) TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE MITTELHESSEN

SUBMITTED TO PROF. DR. FRIEDRICH KLEIN

1st JUNE 2011 FRIEDBERG

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ABSTRACT
This report is focused on Bluetooth focusing on its Networking technology . It also gives brief overview on Bluetooth's History , its technical features, its core protocols such as Radio Frequency, Linking Protocol. It also describes Bluetooth profiles, Connection methods. Security Problems and comparison to competing technology is also made here. And its future relevancy is discussed in brief.

Table Of Contents
1 Introduction............................................................................................................4 2 History....................................................................................................................5 3 Air Interface............................................................................................................6 3.1 Frequency..........................................................................................................6 3.2 Piconet and Scatternet.......................................................................................6 3.3 Frequency-hopping...........................................................................................7 4 Links......................................................................................................................8 5 Connection Establishment......................................................................................9 6 Profiles..................................................................................................................10 7 Security..................................................................................................................11 7.1 Level of Security..............................................................................................11 7.2 Connection and Encryption..............................................................................11 7.3 Security Concerns............................................................................................11 8 Comparison...............................................................................................,,..........12 9 Future of Bluetooth....................................................................................,..........12 10 Conclusion...........................................................................................................13 Appendix References

1 Introduction
The concept of Bluetooth originated when it was thought that a common wireless link was needed to connect the mobile devices such as Mobile Phone, ,Laptop, netbook etc to data communication interface and getting rid of company specific cable connection and configuration . An obvious solution was to get rid of the cables and use short-range wireless links to facilitate on-demand connectivity among devices. So in 1998 five major companies ( Ericsson, Nokia, IBM, Toshiba, and Intel) formed a group to create a license free technology for PAN( Personal Area Network) connectivity . To date this group has about 14000 members. Bluetooth is a technology named after a 10th-century king of Denmark, Harald Bltand (Bluetooth) who brought warring Viking tribes under a common rule as in the same way Bluetooth brought all mobile devices under one communication profile. The logo for Bluetooth is based on Runes surrounding the legend of Harald Bluetooth The Bluetooth specifications define a radio frequency (RF) wireless communication interface and the associated set of communication protocols and usage profiles. The specifications of Bluetooth such as link speed, communication range, and transmit power level are chosen in such format so that they can support low-cost, power-efficient, single-chip implementations of the current technology. Key features are robustness, low power, and low cost. Many features of the core specification are optional, allowing product differentiation. The Bluetooth core system consists of an RF transceiver, baseband, and protocol stack. The system offers services that enable the connection of devices and the exchange of a variety of classes of data between these devices. The current specification running is Bluetooth version 4.0, released on June 30, 2010 .

2 History
The Bluetooth specification was developed as a cable replacement in 1994 by Jaap Haartsen and Sven Mattisson, who were working for Ericsson in Lund, Sweden. The specification is based on frequencyhopping spread spectrum technology. The specifications were formalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The SIG was formally announced on May 20, 1998. It was established by Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia, and later joined by many other companies. Today it has a membership of over 14,000 companies worldwide.

3 Air Interface
3.1 Frequency
Bluetooth operates in the unlicensed ISM band at 2.4 GHz. The system employs a frequency hop transceiver to combat interference and fading and RF operation uses a shaped, binary FM modulation to minimize transceiver complexity. The symbol rate is 1 Megasymbol per second (Ms/s) supporting the bit rate of 1 Megabit per second (Mb/s).

3.2 Piconet and Scatternet

A bluetooth network is called a piconet. The initiating device is called a master and the connected device is called the slave. Being an adhoc connection normally the connection is terminated after the current task has been completed. The majority of Bluetooth applications will be point-to-point applications .A master can have simultaneous connections (point-to-multipoint) to up to seven slaves. a) Point-to-point b)Point to multipoint c) Scatternet

Fig: Types of Bluetoth Network Connection One device can also be connected in two or more piconets. The set-up is called scatternet. A device can act as master to only one piconet . The role of master/slave is not fixed and can be changed during connections.

3.3 Frequency-hopping
Bluetooth uses frequency-hopping as the method to transmit packets between the users. In frequencyhopping every packet is transmitted on a different frequency. With a fast hop rate of 1600 hops per second interference is kept at minimum.

Fig: Frequency-hopping The minimum slot time is 625 micro seconds but three to five slots can be combined so that switching time can be reduced but this may also reduce the robustness of the packets and in a crowded environment the long packets may be lost more easily. Data is transmitted in packets. Each packet contains three things ,the access code, the header, and the payload .The size of the access code and the header are fixed. The payload ranges from 0 to 2745 bits per packet. The control packets may also consist of the access code only, or of the access code and header only. Three methods are used for ensuring reliable data transfer in crowded environments. In the Forward Error Correction (FEC) scheme, additional check bits are added in the packet header or the payload. In the Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) scheme, the data payload is retransmitted until the recipient sends an acknowledgment. Acknowledgement information is included in the header of the return

Fig : Bluetooth Packet

packet. To determine whether the payload is correct or not, a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) code is added to the packet.

4 Links
The Asynchronous Connectionless (ACL) links are defined for data transmission, primarily packet data. They support symmetrical and asymmetrical packet-switched connections. Multi-slot packets use the ACL link type . The master controls the ACL link bandwidth and decides how much of the bandwidth a slave can use in a piconet. Broadcast messages are supported in the ACL link, i.e., from the master to all slaves in the piconet. The Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO) links support symmetrical, circuit-switched, point-topoint connections and are therefore primarily used for voice traffic. Two consecutive time slots at fixed intervals are reserved for an SCO link . The SCO link reserves every sixth slot for a transmitting channel and the subsequent slot for a receiving channel, so there can be up to three simultaneous SCO links.

Fig: Example of point-to-multipoint connection using both ACL and SCO links The points to be noted in the figure is that the communication between master and slave is repeated after 6th interval and subsequent communication between slave and master happens in the next slot .

5 Connection Establishment
Before any connections are made, all units are in standby mode. A unit in a standby mode wakes up every 1.28 seconds to listen to page/inquiry messages. Each time a unit wakes up, it listens on one of the 32 defined hop frequencies. The connection to a desired device is made by a page message. When paging, the master must know the slaves Bluetooth address and system clock to calculate the proper access code and the wake-up sequence phase. That information will be provided in the inquiry process which is needed when master does not the Bluetooth address of the slave. In inquiry, the master sends an inquiry access code, and other devices respond with their identity and system clock. After that, the connection can be made with any of those devices using the paging procedure described earlier. After page message the connection is made. In connection state, the Bluetooth unit can be in several modes of operation. Sniff, hold, and park modes are used to save power or to free the capacity of a piconet. These modes are explained in more details below. Active mode: In the active mode, the Bluetooth unit actively participates on the channel. Sniff mode: In the sniff mode, the duty cycle of the slaves listen activity can be reduced. This means that the master can only start transmission in specified time slots. Hold mode: While in connection state, the ACL link to a slave can be put in a hold (possible SCO links are still supported). In hold mode, the slave can do other things, such as scanning, paging, inquiring, or attending another piconet . Park mode: If a slave does not need to participate in the piconet but still wants to remain synchronized to the channel (to participate in the piconet again later), it can enter the park mode. It gives up its active member address. Park mode is useful if there are more than seven devices that occasionally need to participate in the same piconet. The parked slave wakes up regularly to listen to the channel in order to re-synchronize and to check for broadcast messages sent by the master.

Fig: Steps of Bluetooth connection

6 Profiles
To use Bluetooth technology the device must interpret certain Profiles which are basically definitions and protocols needed by the Bluetooth devices to communicate with each other. There are wide range of Bluetooth profiles which explain the diverse functionality in which we can use the Bluetooth technology. These profiles are defined and adopted by Bluetooth SIG. Main Profiles needed for generic connections are General Access Profile ( GAP): This profile is required by all usage models and defines how Bluetooth devices and connect to one another, as well as defines security protocols. All Bluetooth devices must conform to at least the GAP to ensure basic interoperability between devices. Service Discovery Application Profile (SDAP):The SDAP uses parts of the GAP to define the discovery of services for Bluetooth devices. Serial Port Profile(SPP): This profile defines how to set up and connect virtual serial ports between two devicesThis serial cable emulation can then be used for tasks such as data transfer and printing. Generic Object Exchange Profile (GOEP): GOEP is dependent on the Serial Port Profile and is used by applications to handle object exchanges. This capability is then used, in turn, by other profiles to perform such functions as Object Push, File Transfer, and Synchronization . Object Push: This profile is used for the exchange of small objects, such as electronic calling cards. File Transfer: This profile is used to transfer files between two Bluetooth devices. Synchronization: This profile is used to synchronize calendars and address information between devices. There are many other profiles such as Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) for audio transfer. Basic Imaging Profile (BIP) for image handling between the device. And many more. At a maximum, each profile specification contains information on the following topics: Dependencies on other formats Suggested user interface formats Specific parts of the Bluetooth protocol stack used by the profile. To perform its task, each profile uses particular options and parameters at each layer of the stack. This may include an outline of the required service record, if appropriate.

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7 Security
The following are the security components which make up the Bluetooth Technology Bluetooth Device Address Authentication Key Encryption Key Random Number 48-bit address 128-bit random number 8-128 bits in length 128-bit random number

7.1 Levels of Security

Devices : 1. Trusted 2. Not Trusted unrestricted access restricted access

Services: 1. Require authentication and authorization 2. Authentication only 3. Open to all devices

7.2 Connection and Encryption

If two devices wish to communicate, a random number must be sent from one device to the other. The receiving device must also have knowledge of the PIN of the sender. With these two sets of information, a link key is generated (as above) on both devices. The sender would then have to enter in their PIN on device B manually or by a key exchange mechanism. To verify if the link keys are equal the sender must generate another random number and encrypts the Bluetooth Device Address (of the receiver) using the link key and the random number to produce a signed response authentication result (SRES). The sender sends the new random number and encrypts it to also produce a SRES. If these two are equal, then a connection is established.

7.3 Security Concern

While bluetooth has its benefits it also has some security concerns where an unauthorized user or device might eavesdrop , cause denial of service or modify the incoming message. To minimize these risks users/manufacturers can evaluate and then incorporate the security features needed as explained above.

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8 Comparison
Bluetooth was basically designed to replace the RS 232 serial cable and is therefore basically limited to WPAN( wireless personal area network ) where as WIFI is basically used as wireless replacement for LAN with ethernet connection . Wi-Fi uses the same radio frequencies as Bluetooth, but with higher power, resulting in a faster connection and better range from the base station but this increases the power consumption which is not desirable according to the blueprint of bluetooth technology.

There may be some loss of packets when these are used concurrently but Bluetooth radio can detect some frequencies asundesirable (due to interference) and not use them in a hopping sequence . If same device such as netbook uses both WPAN and WLAN network then some exchange of message can take place between the competing network to mitigate the loss of packets.

9 Future of Bluetooth
Use of Broadcast channel using pulling method where mobile phones or devices pull information from information points instead of pushing of information which is the current form . There is also going to be improvement in QoS enabling better quality of videos and sounds being transferred. This all developments plus the current technology of Bluetooth will secure its survival . But on the other side there could emerge a technology that would make Bluetooth obsolete.

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10 Conclusion
Based on this report I can conclude that Bluetooth is an essential part of Wireless Personal Area Network . With the backing it gets from the companies that started it and vast members of SIG it is still a powerful player in Wireless Technology . But to keep it relevant in future more development and research towards its security issues must be done.

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Appendix
Acronyms
ACL - Asynchronous Connection-Less ARQ Automatic Repeat Request CSMA- Carrier Sense Multiple Access DSSS- Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum FEC Forward Error Correction FHSS - Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum IEEE - Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers ISM - Industrial, Scientific, Medical LAN - Local Area Network Mbps - Megabits per second OFDM- Orthogonal Frequency Divison Multiplexing PAN - Personal Area Network PHY - Physical (Layer) PIN Personal Identification Number POS - Personal Operating Space QoS - Quality of Service SCO - Synchronous Connection Oriented SDP - Service Discovery Protocol SIG - Special Interest Group USB Universal Serial Bus WLAN - Wireless LAN WPAN- Wireless PAN

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References
[1] Bluetooth SIG http://www.bluetooth.com [2]Bluetooth specifications http://www.bluetooth.com/developer/specification/specification.asp [3] Wikipedia http://www.en.wikipedia.org/bluetooth [4 ]Bluetooth Technology Review Forum Nokia Version 1.0; April 4, 2003

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