Bluetooth (BT) Protocol Architecture

By: Sachin Garg

Table of Contents
Protocol Stack
Classification Protocols
BT Radio
Baseband Link Manager Protocol

Logical Link Control & Adaptation Protocol

Service Discovery Protocol Others BT Profiles

References

Bluetooth Protocol Stack

Classification of Protocols
Can be divided into four layers
purpose

whether BT SIG has been involved in specifying them

Protocol Layer
Bluetooth Core Protocols

Protocols in the stack

Baseband, LMP, L2CAP, SDP

Cable Replacement Protocol

Telephony Control Protocol Adopted Protocols

RFCOMM
TCS Binary, AT-commands PPP, UDP/TCP/IP, OBEX, WAP, vCARD, vCAL, IrMC, WAE

Classification Continued

Applications Higher Layers Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP) HCI : command interface to the BT module, access to Host Controller hardware status and Interface (HCI) control registers. Can be above or below L2CAP.

Link Manager Protocol (LMP)

Baseband Radio

Bluetooth Module

BT Radio
lowest defined layer of the Bluetooth specification Frequency Bands and Channel Arrangement
Operates in the 2.4 GHz unlicensed ISM band. 79 hop frequencies: f = 2402+k MHz, k= 0,..78.
-Japan, Spain and France, 23 channels only

Transmitter
GFSK modulation: BT=0.5, 0.28 < m < 0.35
Power
Class

1: long range (~100m) devices, output power 20 dBm,

Class
Class

2: ordinary range (~10m) devices, output power 4 dBm,

3: short range (~10cm) devices, output power 0 dBm.

BT Radio
Receiver

BER < 10-3 for:

-70dBm input power level. 11 dB carrier to co-channel interference ratio
RSSI: Receiver Signal Strength Indicator

Power Control

Baseband
lies on top of Bluetooth radio

manages physical channels and links

Other services error correction data whitening hop selection Bluetooth security

Baseband
Physical Channel
Pseudo Random Frequency Hopping with Time Division Duplexing Transmission rapidly hops among the available channels Transactions are divided into dedicated time slots each for the Master and the Slave Typically odd cycles for the Master and evens for the Slaves Terminology Frame = a complete transmit/receive cycle Slot = a 625 microsecond segment within a frame

Baseband: Physical Links

ACL (Asynchronous Connection Less)- data only one ACL link per slave (master may have more than one ACL link but with different slaves.

irregular link, master decides which slave to transmit to.

ACL links carry packets to/fro from LMP or L2CAP layers. Data packets: DH (data high) or DM (data medium) Variable packet size (1,3,5 slots), point-to multipoint

asymmetric bandwidth
max. 721 kbps (57.6 kbps return channel) 108.8 - 432.6 kbps (symmetric)

Physical Links continued.

SCO (Synchronous Connection Oriented) Voice

symmetric and regular.

master can support up to 3 SCO links with the same/different slaves. slave can support 3 SCO links, with the same master. SCO packets never retransmitted

Baseband
logical channels : Five LC (Control Channel) and LM (Link Manager)

link level information

UA, UI and US : asynchronous, isosynchronous and synchronous user information.

Bluetooth Addressing
four types of device addresses
BD_ADDR: Bluetooth Device Address.

AM_ADDR: Active Member Address

PM_ADDR: Parked Member Address AR_ADDR: Access Request Address

BT Network Topology
PICONET - Collection of devices connected in an ad hoc
fashion One unit acts as master and the others as slaves for the lifetime of the piconet
Master device that initiates a data exchange Slave device that responds to the master
P S S M

sb

Master determines hopping pattern, slaves have to synchronize

P P sb M S

Each piconet has one master and up to 7 simultaneous slaves (> 200could be parked)
Participation in a piconet = synchronization to hopping sequence

M=Master SB=Standby P=Parked S=Slave

Network Topology continued..

All

devices in a piconet hop together

Hopping pattern: determined by device ID (48 bit, unique worldwide) Phase in hopping pattern determined by clock

Master gives slaves its clock and device ID

Each piconet has maximum capacity (1 MSps)

Scatternet intersecting piconets.

Devices can be slave in both or master in one and slave in other.

Frequency Hopping & Time Division Duplexing

fk Master fk+1 fk+2 fk+3

Slave1
625 ms Slot 1 Frame 1 Slot2 625 ms Slot 3 Frame 2

t
Slot4

Complete packet transmission occurs during a Slot Frequency hops from Slot to Slot to Slot Frames define matched Master / Slave Slot transmissions

Multi-Slave Transmission
fk Master fk+1 fk+2 fk+3 fk+4 fk+5

Slave1

Slave2 t
The Bluetooth master interleaves traffic between multiple simultaneously active slaves
Each Master can support up to 7 simultaneously active slaves

Multi-Slot Framing
fk Master fk fk fk+3

Slave1
625 ms Slot 1

t
Slot2 Frame

Slot 3

Slot4

To increase bandwidth Bluetooth can aggregate multiple slots in one direction of the transmission (i.e. asymmetric transmission)
Eliminates turnaround time and reduces packet overhead Note that frequency DOES NOT change during the multi-slot transmission

Bluetooth supports 1/1, 3/1, and 5/1 framing (example above is 3/1) 5/1 framing supports up to 721Kbps, Bluetooths maximum capacity

Point to Multi-Point Transmission

fk Master Slave1 Slave2 Slave3 t
The Bluetooth Master can also simultaneously transmit to all of its active Slaves at one time In such transmissions there can be no reverse traffic from the Slaves

fk+1

fk+2

fk+3

fk+4

fk+5

Each Bluetooth Piconet Randomly Changes Frequency Slot by Slot by Slot

80 80 80 80 70 70 70 70

60 60

60 60

50 50

50 50

40 40

40 40

30 30

30 30

20 20

20 20

10 10

10 10

00 00 10 10 20 20 30 30 40 40 50 50 60 60 70 70 80 80 90 90

00 100 100

PiconetA A Piconet ActivePiconets: Piconets:1 1 Active TotalTransmission TransmissionSlots: Slots:100 100 Total TransmissionSlots SlotsHit: Hit:0 0 Transmission

Contention Contention TransmissionEfficiency: Efficiency:~100% ~100% Transmission

Frequency Hopping With Multiple Piconets

Each Piconet Uses a Unique Frequency Hopping Pattern
80 80 70 70

60

50

40

30

Four active piconets 400 transmission slots 10 collisions 20 slots corrupted ~95% net efficiency

60

50

40

30

20

20

10

10

0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

0 100

Piconet A Active Piconets: 4

Piconet B

Piconet C

Piconet D

Contention

Contention

Contention

Contention

Total Transmission Slots: 400

Transmission Slots Hit: 20

Transmission Efficiency: ~95%

Bluetooth Piconets Degrade Gracefully with Density...

80 70 60

80

70

50

40

30

Ten active piconets 1000 transmission slots 56 collisions 112 slots corrupted ~89% net efficiency

60

50

40

30

20

20

10

10

0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

0 100

Piconet A Contention

Piconet B Contention

Piconet C Contention

Piconet D Contention

Piconet E Contention

Piconet F Contention

Piconet G Contention

Piconet H Contention

Piconet I Contention

Piconet J Contention

Active Piconets: 10

Total Transmission Slots: 1000

Transmission Slots Hit: 112

Transmission Efficiency: ~89%

Baseband: Packets
Packet Types : 13 types Packet Format

Access Code: timing synchronization, offset compensation, paging and inquiry.

Three types : Channel Access Code (CAC), Device Access Code (DAC) and Inquiry Access Code (IAC).

Header: information for packet acknowledgement, packet numbering for out-of-order packet reordering, flow control, slave address and error check for header. Payload: voice field, data field or both.

Baseband: Overview of States

Major states:

-Standby
-Connection

7 sub-states: used in device discovery procedures.

Baseband: Connection state

Active mode:
Bluetooth unit listens for each master transmission.

Slaves not addressed can sleep through a transmission.

Periodic master transmissions used for sync.

Sniff mode:
Unit does not listen to every master transmission. Master polls such slaves in specified sniff slots.

Baseband: Connection state continued.

Hold mode
Master and slave agree on a time duration for which the slave is not polled. Typically used for scanning, paging, inquiry or by bridge slaves to attend to other piconets.

Park mode
Slave gives up AM_ADDR. Listens periodically for a beacon transmission to synchronize and uses PM_ADDR/AR_ADDR for unparking.

Baseband : Other Functions

Error Correction : three kinds
1/3 rate FEC: used for headers and voice. 2/3 rate FEC: used for DM packets. Stop and wait ARQ. CRC is used to detect error in payload. Broadcast packets are not acked.

Flow Control
avoid dropped packets and congestion

Synchronization Security
authentication of the peers and encryption of the information

LMP Link Manager Protocol

Piconet management
-Attach and detach slaves -Master-slave switch -Establishing ACL and SCO links -Handling of low power modes: Hold, Sniff, Park Link configuration -Supported features -Quality of Service, usable packet types -Power Control Security Functions -Authentication -Encryption including key management Link Information

L2CAP - Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol

Simple data link protocol on top of baseband Connection oriented, connectionless, and signaling channels

Protocol multiplexing
RFCOMM, SDP, telephony control Segmentation & reassembly Up to 64kbyte user data, 16 bit CRC QoS flow specification per channel Specifies delay, jitter, bursts, bandwidth Group abstraction Create/close group, add/remove member

SDP - Service Discovery Protocol

Defines an inquiry/response protocol for discovering services

- Searching for and browsing services

Defines a service record format - Information about services provided by attributes - Attributes composed of an ID (name) and a value - Ids may be universally unique identifiers (UUIDs)

Cable Replacement Protocol

RFCOMM Serial line emulation protocol.

Emulates RS-232 control and data signals over Bluetooth baseband.

Provides transport capabilities for upper level services that use serial line as transport mechanism.

Telephony Control Protocol

Telephony control binary (TCS BIN) call control (setup & release)
group management

gateway may serve more cordless devices

Telephony Control AT Commands set of AT-commands by which a mobile phone and modem can be controlled in the multiple usage models

 PPP

Adopted Protocols

designed to run over RFCOMM to accomplish point-topoint connections

for LAN access

OBEX for co-existence of Bluetooth and IrDA

TCP/UDP/IP
for communication with any other device connected to the Internet for the Internet Bridge usage scenarios in Bluetooth Similarly, FTP, HTTP etc..

Bluetooth profiles
Represents default solution for a usage model
- Vertical slice through the protocol stack
Applications

Protocols

Profiles

The figure does not show the LMP, Baseband, and Radio layers

Generic Access Profile - GAP

The Generic Access Profile defines the generic procedures related to discovery of Bluetooth devices and link management aspects of connecting to Bluetooth devices. It is the core on which all other Profiles are based

Synchronization profile
IrMC IrOBEX RFCOMM L2CAP

LMP

ACL SCO Bluetooth Baseband

LAN access point profile

PPP

RFCOMM L2CAP LMP

ACL SCO Bluetooth Baseband

References
www.palowireless.com/bluetooth/ www.research.ibm.com/people/k/kapurva www.cse.secs.oakland.edu/haskell2/ VHDL/CSE480/