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nice051 Friday, December 07, 2007 04:21 PM

Mobile codes
 
Assalam-o-alaikum

I Needed Some Information About Mobile Numbers Codes. I Have A Few Question . I Have To Give A Assiment On Mobile Numbers Codes. Kindly Anyone Who Know Do Reply.

1) Why Every Company Has It's Own Codes ? I Mean ( O333, 0300........)

2) Why A Company Changes Its Code ?( Like Ufone First Started With 0333 , Than 0334 And Now So On )

3) How Bluethooth Works In Mobile ?



These Are The Questions , Given To Me In An Assisement .
Kindly Reply

Noman Friday, December 07, 2007 10:32 PM

Bluetooth in short
 
Here I'm writing a short note on Bluetooth. Wireless networking is a very vast subject like an ocean or a Universe & Bluetooth is like a drop of water in that ocean or like our planet earth in Universe; however bluetooth itself is a big subject. However I'm giving a short note is as under giving its intro.

[B][U]Bluetooth Basics[/U][/B]
Bluetooth wireless technology is a short-range communications technology intended to replace the cables connecting portable and/or fixed devices while maintaining high levels of security. The key features of Bluetooth technology are robustness, low power, and low cost. The Bluetooth specification defines a uniform structure for a wide range of devices to connect and communicate with each other.

Bluetooth technology has achieved global acceptance such that any Bluetooth enabled device, almost everywhere in the world, can connect to other Bluetooth enabled devices in proximity. Bluetooth enabled electronic devices connect and communicate wirelessly through short-range, ad hoc networks known as piconets. Each device can simultaneously communicate with up to seven other devices within a single piconet. Each device can also belong to several piconets simultaneously. Piconets are established dynamically and automatically as Bluetooth enabled devices enter and leave radio proximity.

A fundamental Bluetooth wireless technology strength is the ability to simultaneously handle both data and voice transmissions. This enables users to enjoy variety of innovative solutions such as a hands-free headset for voice calls, printing and fax capabilities, and synchronizing PDA, laptop, and mobile phone applications to name a few.
[B][U]
Core Specification Versions[/U][/B]

Version 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate (EDR), adopted November, 2004
Version 1.2, adopted November, 2003
Specification Make-Up
Unlike many other wireless standards, the Bluetooth wireless specification gives product developers both link layer and application layer definitions, which supports data and voice applications.
[B][U]Spectrum[/U][/B]
Bluetooth technology operates in the unlicensed industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band at 2.4 to 2.485 GHz, using a spread spectrum, frequency hopping, full-duplex signal at a nominal rate of 1600 hops/sec. The 2.4 GHz ISM band is available and unlicensed in most countries.
[B][U]
Interference[/U][/B]
Bluetooth technology’s adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) capability was designed to reduce interference between wireless technologies sharing the 2.4 GHz spectrum. AFH works within the spectrum to take advantage of the available frequency. This is done by detecting other devices in the spectrum and avoiding the frequencies they are using. This adaptive hopping allows for more efficient transmission within the spectrum, providing users with greater performance even if using other technologies along with Bluetooth technology. The signal hops among 79 frequencies at 1 MHz intervals to give a high degree of interference immunity.

[B][U]Range[/U][/B]
The operating range depends on the device class:

Class 3 radios – have a range of up to 1 meter or 3 feet
Class 2 radios – most commonly found in mobile devices – have a range of 10 meters or 30 feet
Class 1 radios – used primarily in industrial use cases – have a range of 100 meters or 300 feet
Power
The most commonly used radio is Class 2 and uses 2.5 mW of power. Bluetooth technology is designed to have very low power consumption. This is reinforced in the specification by allowing radios to be powered down when inactive.

[B][U]Data Rate[/U][/B]
1 Mbps for Version 1.2; Up to 3 Mbps supported for Version 2.0 + EDR

[B][U]How Bluetooth Technology Works[/U][/B]
Bluetooth wireless technology is a short-range communications system intended to replace the cables connecting portable and/or fixed electronic devices. The key features of Bluetooth wireless technology 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 data classes between these devices.
[B]
Overview of Operation[/B]
The Bluetooth RF (physical layer) operates in the unlicensed ISM band at 2.4GHz. The system employs a frequency hop transceiver to combat interference and fading, and provides many FHSS carriers. RF operation uses a shaped, binary frequency modulation to minimize transceiver complexity. The symbol
rate is 1 Megasymbol per second (Msps) supporting the bit rate of 1 Megabit per second (Mbps) or, with Enhanced Data Rate, a gross air bit rate of 2 or 3Mb/s. These modes are known as Basic Rate and Enhanced Data Rate respectively.

During typical operation, a physical radio channel is shared by a group of devices that are synchronized to a common clock and frequency hopping pattern. One device provides the synchronization reference and is known as the master. All other devices are known as slaves. A group of devices synchronized in this fashion form a piconet. This is the fundamental form of communication for Bluetooth wireless technology.

Devices in a piconet use a specific frequency hopping pattern which is algorithmically determined by certain fields in the Bluetooth specification address and clock of the master. The basic hopping pattern is a pseudo-random ordering of the 79 frequencies in the ISM band. The hopping pattern may be adapted to exclude a portion of the frequencies that are used by interfering devices. The adaptive hopping technique improves Bluetooth technology co-existence with static (non-hopping) ISM systems when these are co-located.

The physical channel is sub-divided into time units known as slots. Data is transmitted between Bluetooth enabled devices in packets that are positioned in these slots. When circumstances permit, a number of consecutive slots may be allocated to a single packet. Frequency hopping takes place between the transmission or reception of packets. Bluetooth technology provides the effect of full duplex transmission through the use of a time-division duplex (TDD) scheme.

Above the physical channel there is a layering of links and channels and associated control protocols. The hierarchy of channels and links from the physical channel upwards is physical channel, physical link, logical transport, logical link and L2CAP channel.

Within a physical channel, a physical link is formed between any two devices that transmit packets in either direction between them. In a piconet physical channel there are restrictions on which devices may form a physical link. There is a physical link between each slave and the master. Physical links are not formed directly between the slaves in a piconet.

The physical link is used as a transport for one or more logical links that support unicast synchronous, asynchronous and isochronous traffic, and broadcast traffic. Traffic on logical links is multiplexed onto the physical link by occupying slots assigned by a scheduling function in the resource manager.

A control protocol for the baseband and physical layers is carried over logical links in addition to user data. This is the link manager protocol (LMP). Devices that are active in a piconet have a default asynchronous connection-oriented logical transport that is used to transport the LMP protocol signaling. For historical reasons this is known as the ACL logical transport. The default ACL logical transport is the one that is created whenever a device joins a piconet. Additional logical transports may be created to transport synchronous data streams when this is required.

The link manager function uses LMP to control the operation of devices in the piconet and provide services to manage the lower architectural layers (radio layer and baseband layer). The LMP protocol is only carried on the default ACL logical transport and the default broadcast logical transport.

Above the baseband layer the L2CAP layer provides a channel-based abstraction to applications and services. It carries out segmentation and reassembly of application data and multiplexing and de-multiplexing of multiple channels over a shared logical link. L2CAP has a protocol control channel that is carried over the default ACL logical transport. Application data submitted to the L2CAP protocol may be carried on any logical link that supports the L2CAP protocol.

Core System Definition
The Bluetooth core system covers the four lowest layers and associated protocols defined by the Bluetooth specification as well as one common service layer protocol, the service discovery protocol (SDP) and the overall profile requirements are specified in the generic access profile (GAP). A complete Bluetooth application requires a number of additional services and higher layer protocols that are defined in the Bluetooth specification.


Bluetooth Controller
The lowest three layers are sometimes grouped into a subsystem known as the Bluetooth controller. This is a common implementation involving a standard physical communications interface between the Bluetooth controller and remainder of the Bluetooth system including the L2CAP, service layers and higher layers (known as the Bluetooth host). Although this interface is optional, the architecture is designed to allow for its existence and characteristics. The Bluetooth specification enables interoperability between independent Bluetooth enabled systems by defining the protocol messages exchanged between equivalent layers, and also interoperability between independent Bluetooth sub-systems by defining a common interface between Bluetooth controllers and Bluetooth hosts.

A number of functional blocks are shown and the path of services and data between these. The functional blocks shown in the diagram are informative; in general the Bluetooth specification does not define the details of implementations except where this is required for interoperability.


Core System Protocols and Signaling
Standard interactions are defined for all inter-device operation, where Bluetooth devices exchange protocol signaling according to the Bluetooth specification. The Bluetooth core system protocols are the radio (RF) protocol, link control (LC) protocol, link manager (LM) protocol and logical link control and adaptation protocol (L2CAP), all of which are fully defined in subsequent parts of the Bluetooth specification. In addition, the service discovery protocol (SDP) is a service layer protocol required by all Bluetooth applications.

The Bluetooth core system offers services through a number of service access points that are shown in the diagram as ellipses. These services consist of the basic primitives that control the Bluetooth core system. The services can be split into three types. There are device control services that modify the behavior and modes of a Bluetooth device, transport control services that create, modify and release traffic bearers (channels and links), and data services that are used to submit data for transmission over traffic bearers. It is common to consider the first two as belonging to the C-plane and the last as belonging to the U-plane.


Host to Controller Interface (HCI): Splits Bluetooth Stack Into Controller and Host
A service interface to the Bluetooth controller sub-system is defined such that the Bluetooth controller may be considered a standard part. In this configuration the Bluetooth controller operates the lowest three layers and the L2CAP layer is contained with the rest of the Bluetooth application in a host system. The standard interface is called the host to controller interface (HCI). Implementation of this standard service interface is optional.

As the Bluetooth architecture is defined with the possibility of a separate host and controller communicating through an HCI, a number of general assumptions are made. The Bluetooth controller is assumed to have limited data buffering capabilities in comparison with the host. Therefore the L2CAP layer is expected to carry out some simple resource management when submitting L2CAP PDUs to the controller for transport to a peer device. This includes segmentation of L2CAP SDUs into more manageable PDUs and then the fragmentation of PDUs into start and continuation packets of a size suitable for the controller buffers, and management of the use of controller buffers to ensure availability for channels with quality of service (QoS) commitments.


Error Detection in L2CAP Layer
The baseband layer provides the basic ARQ protocol in Bluetooth technology. The L2CAP layer can optionally provide a further error detection and retransmission to the L2CAP PDUs. This feature is recommended for applications with requirements for a low probability of undetected errors in the user data. A further optional feature of L2CAP is a window-based flow control that can be used to manage buffer allocation in the receiving device. Both of these optional features augment the QoS performance in certain scenarios.

Although these assumptions may not be required for embedded Bluetooth technology implementations that combine all layers in a single system, the general architectural and QoS models are defined with these assumptions in mind, in effect a lowest common denominator.


Testing Interfaces: RF and Test Control Interface (TCI)
Automated conformance testing of implementations of the Bluetooth core system is required. This is achieved by allowing the tester to control the implementation through the RF interface, which is common to all Bluetooth systems, and through the test control interface (TCI), which is only required for conformance testing.

The tester uses exchanges with the implementation under test (IUT) through the RF interface to ensure the correct responses to requests from remote devices. The tester controls the IUT through the TCI to cause the IUT to originate exchanges through the RF interface so that these can also be verified as conformant.

The TCI uses a different command-set (service interface) for the testing of each architectural layer and protocol. A subset of the HCI command-set issued as the TCI service interface for each of the layers and protocols within the Bluetooth controller subsystem. A separate service interface is used for testing the L2CAP layer and protocol. As an L2CAP service interface is not defined in the Bluetooth core specification it is defined separately in the TCI specification. Implementation of the L2CAP service interface is only required for conformance testing.



[B][U][CENTER]Core Architecture Blocks[/CENTER][/U][/B]

Channel Manager
The channel manager is responsible for creating, managing, and destroying L2CAP channels for the transport of service protocols and application data streams. The channel manager uses the L2CAP protocol to interact with a channel manager on a remote (peer) device to create these L2CAP channels and connect their endpoints to the appropriate entities. The channel manager interacts with its local link manager to create new logical links (if necessary) and to configure these links to provide the required QoS for the type of data being transported.


L2CAP Resource Manager
The L2CAP resource manager block is responsible for managing the ordering of submission of PDU fragments to the baseband and some relative scheduling between channels to ensure that L2CAP channels with QoS commitments are not denied access to the physical channel due to Bluetooth controller resource exhaustion. This is required because the architectural model does not assume that the Bluetooth controller has limitless buffering, or that the HCI is a pipe of infinite bandwidth.

L2CAP resource managers may also carry out traffic conformance policing to ensure that applications are submitting L2CAP SDUs within the bounds of their negotiated QoS settings. The general Bluetooth data transport model assumes well-behaved applications, and does not define how an implementation is expected to deal with this problem.


Device Manager
The device manager is the functional block in the baseband that controls the general behavior of the Bluetooth enabled device. It is responsible for all operation of the Bluetooth system that is not directly related to data transport, such as inquiring for the presence of other nearby Bluetooth enabled devices, connecting to other Bluetooth enabled devices or making the local Bluetooth enabled device discoverable or connectable by other devices.

The device manager requests access to the transport medium from the baseband resource controller in order to carry out its functions.

The device manager also controls local device behavior implied by a number of the HCI commands, such as managing the device local name, any stored link keys, and other functionality.


Link Manager
The link manager is responsible for the creation, modification, and release of logical links (and, if required, their associated logical transports), as well as the update of parameters related to physical links between devices. The link manager achieves this by communicating with the link manager in remote Bluetooth devices using the link management protocol (LMP).

The LMP allows the creation of new logical links and logical transports between devices when required, as well as the general control of link and transport attributes such as the enabling of encryption on the logical transport, the adapting of transmit power on the physical link or the adjustment of QoS settings for a logical link.


Baseband Resource Manager
The baseband resource manager is responsible for all access to the radio medium. It has two main functions. At its heart is a scheduler that grants time on the physical channels to all of the entities that have negotiated an access contract. The other main function is to negotiate access contracts with these entities. An access contract is effectively a commitment to deliver a certain QoS that is required in order to provide a user application with an expected performance.

The access contract and scheduling function must take account of any behavior that requires use of the Bluetooth radio. This includes, for example, the normal exchange of data between connected devices over logical links and logical transports, as well as the use of the radio medium to carry out inquiries, make connections, be discoverable or connectable, or to take readings from unused carriers during the use of AFH mode.

In some cases the scheduling of a logical link results in changing to a different physical channel from the one that was previously used. This may be, for example, due to involvement in scatternet, a periodic inquiry function, or page scanning. When the physical channels are not time slot aligned, then the resource manager also accounts for the realignment time between slots on the original physical channel and slots on the new physical channel. In some cases the slots will be naturally aligned due to the same device clock being used as a reference for both physical channels.


Link Controller
The link controller is responsible for the encoding and decoding of Bluetooth packets from the data payload and parameters related to the physical channel, logical transport and logical link.

The link controller carries out the link control protocol signaling (in close conjunction with the scheduling function of the resource manager), which is used to communicate flow control and acknowledgement and retransmission request signals. The interpretation of these signals is a characteristic of the logical transport associated with the baseband packet. Interpretation and control of the link control signaling is normally associated with the resource manager’s scheduler.


RF
The RF block is responsible for transmitting and receiving packets of information on the physical channel. A control path between the baseband and the RF block allows the baseband block to control the timing and frequency carrier of the RF block. The RF block transforms a stream of data to and from the physical channel and the baseband into required formats.

The Bluetooth data transport system follows a layered architecture. This description of the Bluetooth system describes the Bluetooth core transport layers up to and including L2CAP channels. All Bluetooth operational modes follow the same generic transport architecture.

For efficiency and legacy reasons, the Bluetooth transport architecture includes a sub-division of the logical layer, distinguishing between logical links and logical transports. This sub-division provides a general and commonly understood concept of a logical link that provides an independent transport between two or more devices. The logical transport sub-layer is required to describe the inter-dependence between some of the logical link types, mainly for reasons of legacy behavior.


[B][U][CENTER]Core Traffic Bearers[/CENTER][/U][/B]
The Bluetooth 1.1 specification described the ACL and SCO links as physical links. With the addition of extended SCO (eSCO) and for future expansion it is better to consider these as logical transport types, which more accurately encapsulates their purpose. However, they are not as independent as might be desired, due to their shared use of resources such as the LT_ADDR and acknowledgement/repeat request (ARQ) scheme. Hence the architecture is incapable of representing these logical transports with a single transport layer. The additional logical transport layer goes some way towards describing this behavior.

The Bluetooth core system provides a number of standard traffic bearers for the transport of service protocol and application data.

The logical links are named using the names of the associated logical transport and a suffix that indicates the type of data that is transported: C for control links carrying LMP messages, U for L2CAP links carrying user data (L2CAP PDUs) and S for stream links carrying unformatted synchronous or isochronous data. It is common for the suffix to be removed from the logical link without introducing ambiguity, thus a reference to the default ACL logical transport can be resolved to mean the ACL-C logical link in cases where the LMP protocol is being discussed, or the ACL-U logical link when the L2CAP layer is being discussed.

The mapping of application traffic types to Bluetooth core traffic bearers is based on matching the traffic characteristics with the bearer characteristics. It is recommended to use these mappings as they provide the most natural and efficient method of transporting the data with its given characteristics.

An application, or an implementation of the Bluetooth core system, may choose to use a different traffic bearer or a different mapping to achieve a similar result. For example, in a piconet with only one slave, the master may choose to transport L2CAP broadcasts over the ACL-U logical link rather than over the ASB-U or PSB-U logical links. This will probably be more efficient in terms of bandwidth if the physical channel quality is not too degraded. Use of alternative transport paths is only acceptable if the characteristics of the application traffic type are preserved.

Application traffic types are used to classify the types of data that may be submitted to the Bluetooth core system. The original data traffic type may not be the same as the type that is submitted to the Bluetooth core system if an intervening process modifies it. For example, video data is generated at a constant rate but an intermediate coding process may alter this to variable rate, e.g. by MPEG4 encoding. For the purposes of the Bluetooth core system, only the characteristic of the submitted data is of interest.


Framed Data Traffic
The L2CAP layer services provide a frame-oriented transport for asynchronous and isochronous user data. The application submits data to this service in variable-sized frames (up to a negotiated maximum for the channel) and these frames are delivered in the same form to the corresponding application on the remote device. There is no requirement for the application to insert additional framing information into the data, although it may do so if this is required. (Such framing is invisible to the Bluetooth core system.)

Connection-oriented L2CAP channels may be created for transport of unicast (point-to-point) data between two Bluetooth enabled devices. A connectionless L2CAP channel exists for broadcasting data. In the case of piconet topologies the master device is always the source of broadcast data and the slave device(s) are the recipients. Traffic on the broadcast L2CAP channel is uni-directional. Unicast L2CAP channels may be uni-directional or bi-directional.

L2CAP channels have an associated QoS setting that defines constraints on the delivery of the frames of data. These QoS settings may be used to indicate, for example, that the data is isochronous and therefore has a limited lifetime after which it becomes invalid, that the data should be delivered within a given time period, or that the data is reliable and should be delivered without error, however long this takes.

The L2CAP channel manager is responsible for arranging to transport theL2CAP channel data frames on an appropriate baseband logical link, possibly multiplexing this onto the baseband logical link with other L2CAP channels with similar characteristics.


Unframed Data Traffic
If the application does not require delivery of data in frames, possibly because it includes in-stream framing, or because the data is a pure stream, then it may avoid the use of L2CAP channels and make direct use of a baseband logical link.

The Bluetooth core system supports the direct transport of application data that is isochronous and of a constant rate (either bit-rate or frame-rate for preframed data), using a SCO-S or eSCO-S logical link. These logical links reserve physical channel bandwidth and provide a constant rate transport locked to the piconet clock. Data is transported in fixed size packets at fixed intervals with both of these parameters negotiated during channel establishment. eSCO links provide a greater choice of bit-rates and also provide greater reliability by using limited retransmission in case of error. Enhanced Data Rate operation is supported for eSCO, but not for SCO logical transports. SCO and eSCO logical transports do not support multiplexed logical links or any further layering within the Bluetooth core. An application may choose to layer a number of streams within the submitted SCO/eSCO stream, provided that the submitted stream is, or has the appearance of being, a constant rate stream.

The application chooses the most appropriate type of logical link from those available at the baseband, creates and configures it to transport the data stream and releases it when completed. (The application will normally also use a framed L2CAP unicast channel to transport its C-plane information to the peer application on the remote device.)

If the application data is isochronous and of a variable rate, then this may only be carried by the L2CAP unicast channel, and hence will be treated as framed data.


Reliability of Traffic Bearers
Bluetooth technology is a wireless communications system. In poor RF environments, this system should be considered inherently unreliable. To counteract this the system provides levels of protection at each layer. The baseband packet header uses forward error correcting (FEC) coding to allow error correction by the receiver and a header error check (HEC) to detect errors remaining after correction. Certain Baseband packet types include FEC for the payload. Furthermore, some baseband packet types include a cyclic redundancy error check (CRC).

On ACL logical transports the results of the error detection algorithm are used to drive a simple ARQ protocol. This provides an enhanced reliability by re-transmitting packets that do not pass the receiver’s error checking algorithm. It is possible to modify this scheme to support latency-sensitive packets by discarding an unsuccessfully transmitted packet at the transmitter if the packet’s useful life has expired. eSCO links use a modified version of this scheme to improve reliability by allowing a limited number of retransmissions.

The resulting reliability gained by this ARQ scheme is only as dependable as the ability of the HEC and CRC codes to detect errors. In most cases this is sufficient, however it has been shown that for the longer packet types the probability of an undetected error is too high to support typical applications, especially those with a large amount of data being transferred.

The L2CAP layer provides an additional level of error control that is designed to detect the occasional undetected errors in the baseband layer and request retransmission of the affected data. This provides the level of reliability required by typical Bluetooth applications.

Broadcast links have no feedback route, and are unable to use the ARQ scheme (although the receiver is still able to detect errors in received packets). Instead each packet is transmitted several times in the hope that the receiver is able to receive at least one of the copies successfully. Despite this approach there are still no guarantees of successful receipt, and so these links are considered unreliable.

In summary, if a link or channel is characterized as reliable this means that the receiver is capable of detecting errors in received packets and requesting retransmission until the errors are removed. Due to the error detection system used some residual (undetected) errors may still remain in the received data. For L2CAP channels the level of these is comparable to other communication systems, although for logical links the residual error level is somewhat higher.

The transmitter may remove packets from the transmit queue such that the receiver does not receive all the packets in the sequence. If this happens detection of the missing packets is delegated to the L2CAP layer.

On an unreliable link the receiver is capable of detecting errors in received packets but cannot request retransmission. The packets passed on by the receiver may be without error, but there is no guarantee that all packets in the sequence are received. Hence the link is considered fundamentally unreliable. There are limited uses for such links, and these uses are normally dependent on the continuous repetition of data from the higher layers while it is valid.

Stream links have a reliability characteristic somewhere between a reliable and an unreliable link, depending on the current operating conditions.



Transport Architecture Entities

Bluetooth Generic Packet Structure
The general packet structure reflects the architectural layers found in the Bluetooth system. The packet structure is designed for optimal use in normal operation.

Packets normally only include the fields that are necessary to represent the layers required by the transaction. Thus a simple inquiry request over an inquiry scan physical channel does not create or require a logical link or higher layer and therefore consists only of the channel access code (associated with the physical channel). General communication within a piconet uses packets that include all of the fields, as all of the architectural layers are used.

All packets include the channel access code. This is used to identify communications on a particular physical channel, and to exclude or ignore packets on a different physical channel that happens to be using the same RF carrier in physical proximity.

There is no direct field within the Bluetooth packet structure that represents or contains information relating to physical links. This information is implied in the logical transport address (LT_ADDR) carried in the packet header.

Most packets include a packet header. The packet header is always present in packets transmitted on physical channels that support physical links, logical transports and logical links. The packet header carries the LT_ADDR, which is used by each receiving device to determine if the packet is addressed to the device and is used to route the packet internally.

The packet header also carries part of the LC protocol that is operated per logical transport (except for ACL and SCO transports that operate a shared LC protocol carried on either logical transport).

The EDR packets have a guard time and synchronization sequence before the payload. This is a field used for physical layer change of modulation scheme.

The payload header is present in all packets on logical transports that support multiple logical links. The payload header includes a logical link identifier field used for routing the payload and a field indicating the length of the payload. Some packet types also include a CRC after the packet payload that is used to detect most errors in received packets. EDR packets have a trailer after the CRC.

The packet payload is used to transport the user data. The interpretation of this data is dependent on the logical transport and logical link identifiers. For ACL logical transports LMP messages and L2CAP signals are transported in the packet payload, along with general user data from applications. For SCO and eSCO logical transports the payload contains the user data for the logical link.


Physical Channels
The lowest architectural layer in the Bluetooth wireless technology system is the physical channel. A number of types of physical channels are defined. All Bluetooth physical channels are characterized by an RF frequency combined with temporal parameters and restricted by spatial considerations. For the basic and adapted piconet physical channels, frequency hopping is used to change frequency periodically to reduce the effects of interference and for regulatory reasons.

Two Bluetooth enabled devices use a shared physical channel for communication. To achieve this their transceivers need to be tuned to the same RF frequency at the same time, and they need to be within a nominal range of each other.

Given that the number of RF carriers is limited and that many Bluetooth enabled devices may be operating independently within the same spatial and temporal area, there is a strong likelihood of two independent Bluetooth enabled devices having their transceivers tuned to the same RF carrier, resulting in a physical channel collision. To mitigate the unwanted effects of this collision each transmission on a physical channel starts with an access code that is used as a correlation code by devices tuned to the physical channel. This channel access code is a property of the physical channel. The access code is always present at the start of every transmitted packet.

Four Bluetooth physical channels are defined. Each is optimized and used for a different purpose. Two of these physical channels (the basic piconet channel and adapted piconet channel) are used for communication between connected devices and are associated with a specific piconet. The remaining physical channels are used for discovering Bluetooth enabled devices (the inquiry scan channel) and for connecting Bluetooth enabled devices (the page scan channel).

A Bluetooth enabled device can only use one of these physical channels at any given time. In order to support multiple concurrent operations the device uses time division multiplexing between the channels. In this way, a Bluetooth enabled device can appear to operate simultaneously in several piconets, as well as being discoverable and connectable.

Whenever a Bluetooth device is synchronized to the timing, frequency, and access code of a physical channel, it is said to be ‘connected’ to this channel (whether or not it is actively involved in communications over the channel). The Bluetooth specification assumes that a device is only capable of connecting to one physical channel at any time. Advanced devices may be capable of connecting simultaneously to more than one physical channel, but the specification does not assume that this is possible.

[B][U][CENTER]Basic Piconet Channel[/CENTER][/U][/B]


Overview
Characteristics
Topology
Supported Layers


Overview
The basic piconet channel is used for communication between connected devices during normal operation.


Characteristics
The basic piconet channel is characterized by a pseudo-random sequence hopping through the RF channels. The hopping sequence is unique for the piconet and is determined by the Bluetooth enabled device address of the master. The phase in the hopping sequence is determined by the Bluetooth clock of the master. All Bluetooth enabled devices participating in the piconet are time- and hop-synchronized to the channel.

The channel is divided into time slots where each slot corresponds to an RF hop frequency. Consecutive hops correspond to different RF hop frequencies. The time slots are numbered according to the Bluetooth clock of the piconet master. Packets are transmitted by Bluetooth devices participating in the piconet aligned to start at a slot boundary. Each packet starts with the channel’s access code, which is derived from the Bluetooth device address of the piconet.

On the basic piconet channel the master controls access to the channel. The master starts its transmission in even-numbered time slots only. Packets transmitted by the master are aligned with the slot start and define the piconet timing. Packets transmitted by the master may occupy up to five time slots depending on the packet type.

Each master transmission is a packet carrying information on one of the logical transports. Slave devices may transmit on the physical channel in response. The characteristics of the response are defined by the logical transport that is addressed.

For example, on the asynchronous connection-oriented logical transport the addressed slave device responds by transmitting a packet containing information for the same logical transport that is nominally aligned with the next (odd numbered) slot start. Such a packet may occupy up to five time slots, depending on the packet type. On a broadcast logical transport no slaves are allowed to respond.

A special characteristic of the basic piconet physical channel is the use of some reserved slots to transmit a beacon train. The beacon train is only used if the piconet physical channel has parked slaves connected to it. In this situation the master transmits a packet in the reserved beacon train slots (these packets are used by the slave to resynchronize to the piconet physical channel). The master may transmit packets from any logical transport onto these slots, providing there is a transmission starting in each of the slots. In the case where there is information from the parked slave broadcast (PSB) logical transport to be transmitted then this is transmitted in the beacon train slots and takes priority over any other logical transport.


Topology
A basic piconet channel may be shared by any number of Bluetooth enabled devices, limited only by the resources available on the piconet master device. Only one device is the piconet master, all others being piconet slaves. All communication is between the master and slave devices. There is no direct communication between slave devices on the piconet channel.

There is, however, a limitation on the number of logical transports that can be supported within a piconet. This means that although there is no theoretical limit to the number of Bluetooth enabled devices that share a channel, there is a limit to the number of these devices that can be actively involved in exchanging data with the master.


Supported Layers
The basic piconet channel supports a number of physical links, logical transports, logical links and L2CAP channels used for general purpose communications.


Adapted Piconet Channel
Overview
The adapted piconet channel differs from the basic piconet channel in two ways. First the frequencies on which the slaves transmit are the same as the preceding master transmit frequency. In other words, the frequency is not recomputed between master and subsequent slave packets. The second way in which the adapted piconet channel differs from the basic piconet channel is that the adapted type can be based on fewer than the full 79 frequencies. A number of frequencies may be excluded from the hopping pattern by being marked as “unused.” The remainder of the 79 frequencies are included. The two sequences are the same except that whenever the basic pseudo-random hopping sequence would have selected an unused frequency, it is replaced with an alternative chosen from the used set.

Because the adapted piconet channel uses the same timing and access code as the basic piconet channel, the two channels are often coincident. This provides a deliberate benefit as it allows slaves in either the basic piconet channel or the adapted piconet channel to adjust their synchronization to the master.

The topology and supported layers of the adapted piconet physical channel are identical to the basic piconet physical channel.


Inquiry Scan Channel
Overview
Characteristics
Topology
Supported Layers

Overview
In order for a device to be discovered, an inquiry scan channel is used. A discoverable device listens for inquiry requests on its inquiry scan channel and then sends responses to these requests. In order for a device to discover other devices, it iterates (hops) through all possible inquiry scan channel frequencies in a pseudo-random fashion, sending an inquiry request on each frequency and listening for any response.


Characteristics
Inquiry scan channels follow a slower hopping pattern and use an access code to distinguish between occasional occupancy of the same radio frequency by two co-located devices using different physical channels.

The access code used on the inquiry scan channel is taken from a reserved set of inquiry access codes that are shared by all Bluetooth enabled devices. One access code is used for general inquiries and a number of additional access codes are reserved for limited inquiries. Each device has access to a number of different inquiry scan channels. As all of these channels share an identical hopping pattern, a device may concurrently occupy more than one inquiry scan channel if it is capable of concurrently correlating more than one access code.

A device using one of its inquiry scan channel remains passive until it receives an inquiry message on this channel from another Bluetooth enabled device. This is identified by the appropriate inquiry access code. The inquiry scanning device will then follow the inquiry response procedure to return a response to the inquiring device.

In order for a device to discover other Bluetooth enabled devices, it uses the inquiry scan channel of these devices to send inquiry requests. As it has no prior knowledge of the devices to discover, it cannot know the exact characteristics of the inquiry scan channel.

The device takes advantage of the fact that inquiry scan channels have a reduced number of hop frequencies and a slower rate of hopping. The inquiring device transmits inquiry requests on each of the inquiry scan hop frequencies and listens for an inquiry response. This is done at a faster rate, allowing the inquiring device to cover all inquiry scan frequencies in a reasonably short time period.


Topology
Inquiring and discoverable devices use a simple exchange of packets to fulfill the inquiring function. The topology formed during this transaction is a simple and transient point-to-point connection.


Supported Layers
During the exchange of packets between an inquiring and discoverable device it may be considered that a temporary physical link exists between these devices. However, the concept is quite irrelevant as it has no physical representation but is only implied by the brief transaction between the devices. No further architectural layers are considered to be supported.


Page Scan Channel
Overview
Characteristics
Topology
Supported Layers

Overview
A connectable device (one that is prepared to accept connections) does sousing an page scan channel. A connectable device listens for page requests on its page scan channel and enters into a sequence of exchanges with this device. In order for a device to connect to another device, it iterates (hops) through all page scan channel frequencies in a pseudo-random fashion, sending an page request on each frequency and listening for any response.


Characteristics
The page scan channel uses an access code derived from the scanning device’s Bluetooth device address to identify communications on the channel. The page scan channel uses a slower hopping rate than the hop rate of the basic and adapted piconet channels. The hop selection algorithm uses the Bluetooth device clock of the scanning device as an input.

A device using its page scan channel remains passive until it receives a page request from another Bluetooth enabled device. This is identified by the page scan channel access code. The two devices will then follow the page procedure to form a connection. Following a successful conclusion of the page procedure both devices switch to the basic piconet channel that is characterized by having the paging device as master.

In order for a device to connect to another Bluetooth enabled device it uses the page scan channel of the target device in order to send page requests. If the paging device does not know the phase of the target device’s page scan channel it therefore does not know the current hop frequency of the target device. The paging device transmits page requests on each of the page scan hop frequencies and listens for a page response. This is done at a faster hop rate, allowing the paging device to cover all page scan frequencies in a reasonably short time period.

The paging device may have some knowledge of the target device’s Bluetooth clock (indicated during a previous inquiry transaction between the two devices, or as a result of a previous involvement in a piconet with the device), in which case it is able to predict the phase of the target device’s page scan channel. It may use this information to optimize the synchronization of the paging and page scanning process and speed up the formation of the connection.


Topology
Paging and connectable devices use a simple exchange of packets to fulfill the paging function. The topology formed during this transaction is a simple and transient point-to-point connection.


Supported Layers
During the exchange of packets between a paging and connectable device it may be considered that a temporary physical link exists between these devices. However, the concept is quite irrelevant as it has no physical representation but is only implied by the brief transaction between the devices. No further architectural layers are considered to be supported.


Physical Links
A physical link represents a baseband connection between Bluetooth enabled devices. A physical link is always associated with exactly one physical channel (although a physical channel may support more than one physical link).

Within the Bluetooth technology system a physical link is a virtual concept that has no direct representation within the structure of a transmitted packet. The access code packet field, together with the clock and address of the master Bluetooth device, are used to identify a physical channel. However there is no subsequent part of the packet that directly identifies the physical link. Instead the physical link may be identified by association with the logical transport, as each logical transport is only received on one physical link.

Some physical link types have properties that may be modified. An example of this is the transmit power for the link. Other physical link types have no such properties. In the case of physical links with modifiable properties the LM protocol is used to adapt these properties. As the LM protocol is supported at a higher layer (by a logical link) the appropriate physical link is identified by implication from the logical link that transports the LM signaling.

In the situation where a transmission is broadcast over a number of different physical links, then the transmission parameters are selected to be suitable for all of the physical links.


Links Supported by the Basic and Adapted Piconet Physical Channel
Active Physical Link
Parked Physical Link

The basic and adapted piconet physical channels support a physical link which may be active or parked. The physical link is a point-to-point link between the master and a slave. It is always present when the slave is synchronized in the piconet.


Active Physical Link
The physical link between a master and a slave device is active if a default ACL logical transport exists between the devices. Active physical links have no direct identification of their own, but are identified by association with the default ACL logical transport ID with which there is a one-to-one correspondence.

An active physical link has the associated properties of radio transmit power in each direction. Transmissions from slave devices are always directed over the active physical link to the master, and use the transmit power that is a property of this link in the slave to master direction. Transmissions from the master maybe directed over a single active physical link (to a specific slave) or over a number of physical links (to a group of slaves in the piconet). In the case of point-to-point transmissions the master uses the appropriate transmit power for the physical link in question. (In the case of point-to-multipoint transmissions the master uses a transmit power appropriate for the set of devices addressed.)

Active physical links may be placed into hold or sniff mode. The effect of these modes is to modify the periods when the physical link is active and may carry traffic. Logical transports that have defined scheduling characteristics are not affected by these modes and continue according to their pre-defined scheduling behavior. The default ACL logical transport and other links with undefined scheduling characteristics are subject to the mode of the active physical link.


Parked Physical Link
The physical link between a master and a slave device is parked when the slave remains synchronized in the piconet but has no default ACL logical transport. Such a slave is also said to be parked. A beacon train is used to provide regular synchronization to all parked slaves connected to the piconet physical channel. A parked slave broadcast (PSB) logical transport is used to allow communication of a subset of LMP signaling and broadcast L2CAP to parked slaves. The PSB logical transport is closely associated with the beacon train.

A slave is parked (its active link is changed to a parked link) using the park procedure. The master is not allowed to park a slave that has any user created logical transport supported by the physical link. These logical transports are first removed, and any L2CAP channels that are built on these logical transports are also removed. The broadcast logical transport and default ACL logical transports are not considered as user created and are not explicitly removed. When the active link is replaced with a parked link the default ACL logical transport is implicitly removed. The supported logical links and L2CAP channels remain in existence but become suspended. It is not possible to use these links and L2CAP channels to transport signaling or data while the active link is absent.

A parked slave may become active using the unpark procedure. This procedure is requested by the slave at an access window and initiated by the master. Following the unpark procedure, the parked physical link is changed to an active physical link and the default ACL logical transport is re-created. L2CAP channels that were suspended during the most recent park procedure are associated with the new default ACL logical transport and become active again.

Parked links do not support radio power control, as there is no feedback path from parked slaves to the piconet master that can be used to signal received signal strength at the slave or for the master to measure received signal strength from the slave. Transmissions are carried out at nominal power on parked links.

Parked links use the same physical channel as their associated active link. If a master manages a piconet that contains parked slaves using the basic piconet physical channel and also parked slaves using the adapted piconet physical channel then it must create a parked slave broadcast logical transport (and associated transport) for each of these physical channels.

A parked slave may use the inactive periods of the parked slave broadcast logical transport to save power, or it may carry out activities on other physical channels unrelated to the piconet within which it is parked.


Links Supported by the Scanning Physical Channels
Logical Links and Logical Transports
Logical Transport Types (Table)
Casting
Scheduling and Acknowledgement Scheme
Class of Data

In the case of the inquiry scan and page scan channels, the physical link exists for a relatively short time and cannot be controlled or modified in any way. These types of physical link are not further elaborated.


Logical Links and Logical Transports
A variety of logical links are available to support different application data transport requirements. Each logical link is associated with a logical transport, which has a number of characteristics. These characteristics include flow control, acknowledgement/repeat mechanisms, sequence numbering and scheduling behavior. Logical transports are able to carry different types of logical links (depending on the type of the logical transport). In the case of some of the Bluetooth Version 1.1 logical links these are multiplexed onto the same logical transport. Logical transports may be carried by active physical links on either the basic or the adapted piconet physical channel.

Logical transport identification and real-time (link control) signaling are carried in the packet header and for some logical links, identification is carried in the payload header. Control signaling that does not require single slot response times is carried out using the LMP protocol.

The following table lists all of the logical transport types, the supported logical link types, which type of physical links and physical channels can support them and a brief description of the purpose of the logical transport.

The names given to the logical links and logical transports reflect some of the names used in Bluetooth Version 1.1, in order to provide some degree of familiarity and continuation. However these names do not reflect a consistent scheme, which is outlined below.

The classification of each link type follows from a selection procedure within three categories.


Casting
The first category is that of casting. This may be either unicast or broadcast. There are no multicast links defined in Bluetooth Version 1.2.

Unicast links. Unicast links exist between exactly two endpoints. Traffic may be sent in either direction on unicast links. All unicast links are connection-oriented, meaning that a connection procedure takes place before the link may be used. In the case of the default ACL links, the connection procedure is an implicit step within the general paging procedure used to form ad-hoc piconets.
Broadcast links. Broadcast links exist between one source device and zero or more receiver devices. Traffic is unidirectional, i.e. only sent from the source devices to the receiver devices. Broadcast links are connectionless, meaning that there is no procedure to create these links, and data may be sent over them at any time. Broadcast links are unreliable, and there is no guarantee that the data will be received.
Scheduling and Acknowledgement Scheme
The second category relates to the scheduling and acknowledgement scheme of the link and implies the type of traffic that is supported by the link. These are synchronous, isochronous or asynchronous. There are no specific isochronous links defined in Bluetooth Version 1.2, though the default ACL link can be configured to operate in this fashion.

Synchronous links. Synchronous links provide a method of associating the Bluetooth piconet clock with the transported data. This is achieved by reserving regular slots on the physical channel, and transmitting fixed size packets at these regular intervals. Such links are suitable for constant rate isochronous data.
Asynchronous links. Asynchronous links provide a method for transporting data that has no time-based characteristics. The data is normally expected to be retransmitted until successfully received and each data entity can be processed at any time after receipt without reference to the time of receipt of any previous or successive entity in the stream (providing the ordering of data entities is preserved).
Isochronous links. Isochronous links provide a method for transporting data that has time-based characteristics. The data may be retransmitted until received or expired. The data rate on the link need not be constant (this being the main difference from synchronous links).
Class of Data
The final category is related to the class of data that is carried by the link. This is either control (LMP) data or user data. The user data category is sub-divided into L2CAP (or framed) data and stream (or unframed) data.

Control links. Control links are only used for transporting LMP messages between two link managers. These links are invisible above the baseband layer, and cannot be directly instantiated, configured or released by applications, other than by the use of the connection and disconnection services that have this effect implicitly. Control links are always multiplexed with an equivalent L2CAP link onto an ACL logical transport. Subject to the rules defining the ARQ scheme, the control link traffic always takes priority over the L2CAP link traffic.
L2CAP links. L2CAP links are used to transport L2CAP PDUs, which may carry the L2CAP signaling channel (on the default ACL-U logical link only) or framed user data submitted to user-instantiated L2CAP channels. L2CAPframes submitted to the baseband may be larger than the available baseband packets. A link control protocol embedded within the LLID field preserves the frame-start and frame-continuation semantics when the frame is transmitted in a number of fragments to the receiver.
Stream links. Stream links are used to transport user data that has no inherent framing that should be preserved when delivering the data. Lost data may be replaced by padding at the receiver.

Asynchronous Connection-Oriented (ACL)
The asynchronous connection-oriented (ACL) logical transport is used to carry LMP and L2CAP control signaling and best effort asynchronous user data. The ACL logical transport uses a simple 1-bit ARQN/SEQN scheme to provide simple channel reliability. Every active slave device within a piconet has one ACL logical transport to the piconet master, known as the default ACL.

The default ACL is created between the master and the slave when a device joins a piconet (connects to the basic piconet physical channel). This default ACL is assigned a logical transport address (LT_ADDR) by the piconet master. This LT_ADDR is also used to identify the active physical link when required (or as a piconet active member identifier, effectively for the same purpose).

The LT_ADDR for the default ACL is reused for synchronous connection-oriented logical transports between the same master and slave. (This is for reasons of compatibility with earlier Bluetooth specifications.) Thus the LT_ADDR is not sufficient on its own to identify the default ACL. However the packet types used on the ACL are different from those used on the synchronous connection-oriented logical transport. Therefore, the ACL logical transport can be identified by the LT_ADDR field in the packet header in combination with the packet type field.

The default ACL may be used for isochronous data transport by configuring it to automatically flush packets after the packets have expired.

If the default ACL is removed from the active physical link then all other logical transports that exist between the master and the slave are also removed. In the case of unexpected loss of synchronization to the piconet physical channel the physical link and all logical transports and logical links cease to exist at the time that this synchronization loss is detected.

A device may remove its default ACL (and by implication its active physical link) but remain synchronized to the piconet. This procedure is known as parking, and a device that is synchronized to the piconet, but has no active physical link, is parked within that piconet.

When the device transitions to the parked state, the default ACL logical links that are transported on the default ACL logical transport remain in existence but become suspended. No data may be transferred across a suspended logical link. When the device transitions from the parked state back into active state, a new default ACL logical transport is created (it may have a different LT_ADDR from the previous one) and the suspended logical links are attached to this default ACL and become active once again.


Synchronous Connection-Oriented (SCO)
The synchronous connection-oriented (SCO) logical transport is a symmetric, point-to-point channel between the master and a specific slave. The SCO logical transport reserves slots on the physical channel and can therefore be considered as a circuit-switched connection between the master and the slave. SCO logical transports carry 64 kb/s of information synchronized with the piconet clock. Typically this information is an encoded voice stream. Three different SCO configurations exist, offering a balance between robustness, delay, and bandwidth consumption.

Each SCO-S logical link is supported by a single SCO logical transport, which is assigned the same LT_ADDR as the default ACL logical transport between the devices. Therefore the LT_ADDR field is not sufficient to identify the destination of a received packet. Because the SCO links use reserved slots, a device uses a combination of the LT_ADDR, the slot numbers (a property of the physical channel), and the packet type to identify transmissions on the SCO link.

The reuse of the default ACL’s LT_ADDR for SCO logical transports is due to legacy behavior from the Bluetooth Version 1.1 specification. In this earlier version of the Bluetooth specification, the LT_ADDR (then known as the active member address) was used to identify the piconet member associated with each transmission. This was not easily extensible for enabling more logical links, and so the purpose of this field was redefined for the new features. Some Bluetooth Version 1.1 features, however, do not cleanly fit into the more formally described architecture.

Although slots are reserved for the SCO, it is permissible to use a reserved slot for traffic from another channel that has a higher priority. This may be required as a result of QoS commitments, or to send LMP signaling on the default ACL when the physical channel bandwidth is fully occupied by SCOs. As SCOs carry different packet types to ACLs, the packet type is used to identify SCO traffic (in addition to the slot number and LT_ADDR.) There are no further architectural layers defined by the Bluetooth core specification that are transported over an SCO link. A number of standard formats are defined for the 64 kb/s stream that is transported, or an unformatted stream is allowed where the application is responsible for interpreting the encoding of the stream.

3.5.6 Extended Synchronous Connection-Oriented (eSCO)
The extended synchronous connection-oriented (eSCO) logical transport is asymmetric or asymmetric, point-to-point link between the master and a specific slave. The eSCO reserves slots on the physical channel and can therefore be considered as a circuit-switched connection between the master and the slave. eSCO links offer a number of extensions over the standard SCO links, in that they support a more flexible combination of packet types and selectable data contents in the packets and selectable slot periods, allowing a range of synchronous bit rates to be supported.

eSCO links also can offer limited retransmission of packets (unlike SCO links where there is no retransmission). If these retransmissions are required they take place in the slots that follow the reserved slots, otherwise the slots may be used for other traffic.

Each eSCO-S logical link is supported by a single eSCO logical transport, identified by a LT_ADDR that is unique within the piconet for the duration of the eSCO. eSCO-S links are created using LM signaling and follow scheduling rules similar to SCO-S links.

There are no further architectural layers defined by the Bluetooth core specification that are transported over an eSCO-S link. Instead, applications may use the data stream for whatever purpose they require, subject to the transport characteristics of the stream being suitable for the data being transported.

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Active Slave Broadcast (ASB)
The active slave broadcast logical transport is used to transport L2CAP user traffic to all devices in the piconet that are currently connected to the physical channel that is used by the ASB. There is no acknowledgement protocol and the traffic is uni-directional from the piconet master to the slaves. The ASB channel may be used for L2CAP group traffic (a legacy of the Version 1.1 specification), and is never used for L2CAP connection-oriented channels, L2CAP control signaling or LMP control signaling.

The ASB logical transport is inherently unreliable because of the lack of acknowledgement. To improve the reliability, each packet is transmitted a number of times. An identical sequence number is used to assist with filtering retransmissions at the slave device.

The ASB logical transport is identified by a reserved LT_ADDR. (The reserved LT_ADDR address is also used by the PSB logical transport.) An active slave will receive traffic on both logical transports and cannot readily distinguish between them. As the ASB logical transport does not carry LMP traffic, an active slave can ignore packets received over the LMP logical link on the ASB logical transport. However, L2CAP traffic transmitted over the PSB logical transport is also received by active slaves on the ASB logical transport and cannot be distinguished from L2CAP traffic sent on the ASB transport.

An ASB is implicitly created whenever a piconet exists, and there is always one ASB associated with each of the basic and adapted piconet physical channels that exist within the piconet. Because the basic and adapted piconet physical channels are mostly coincident, a slave device cannot distinguish which of the ASB channels is being used to transmit the packets. This adds to the general unreliability of the ASB channel. (Although it is, perhaps, no more unreliable than general missed packets.)

A master device may decide to use only one of its two possible ASBs (when it has both a basic and adapted piconet physical channel), as with sufficient retransmissions it is possible to address both groups of slaves on the same ASB channel.

The ASB channel is never used to carry LMP or L2CAP control signals.


Parked Slave Broadcast (PSB)
The parked slave broadcast logical transport is used for communications between the master and slaves that are parked (have given up their default ACL logical transport). The parked slave broadcast link is the only logical transport that exists between the piconet master and parked slaves.

The PSB logical transport is more complex than the other logical transports as it consists of a number of phases, each having a different purpose. These phases are the control information phase (used to carry the LMP logical link), the user information phase (used to carry the L2CAP logical link), and the access phase (carrying baseband signaling). The control information and broadcast information phases are usually mutually exclusive as only one of them can be supported in a single beacon interval. (Even if there is no controller user information phase, the master is still required to transmit a packet in the beacon slots so that the parked slaves can resynchronize.) The access phase is normally present unless cancelled in a control information message.

The control information phase is used for the master to send information to the parked slaves containing modifications to the PSB transport attributes, modifications to the beacon train attributes or a request for a parked slave to become active in the piconet (known as unparking). This control information is carried in LMP messages on the LMP logical link. (The control information phase is also present in the case of a user information phase where the user information requires more than one baseband packet.)

Packets in the control information phase are always transmitted in the physical channel beacon train slots and cannot be transmitted on any other slots. The control information occupies a single DM1 packet and is repeated in every beacon train slot within a single beacon interval. (If there is no control information then there may be a user information phase that uses the beacon slots. If neither phase is used then the beacon slots are used for other logical transport traffic or for NULL packets.)

The user information phase is used for the master to send L2CAP packets that are destined for all piconet slaves. User information may occupy one or more baseband packets. If the user information occupies a single packet then the user information packet is repeated in each of the piconet channel beacon train slots.

If the user information occupies more than one baseband packets then it is transmitted in slots after the beacon train (the broadcast scan window), and the beacon slots are used to transmit a control information phase message that contains the timing attributes of this broadcast scan window. This is required so that the parked slaves remain connected to the piconet physical channel to receive the user information.

The access phase is normally present unless temporarily cancelled by a control message carried in the control information broadcast phase. The access window consists of a sequence of slots that follow the beacon train. In order for a parked slave to become active in the piconet, it must send such an access request to the piconet master during the access window. Each parked slave is allocated an access request address (not necessarily unique) that controls when during the access window the slave requests access.

The PSB logical transport is identified by the reserved LT_ADDR of 0. This reserved LT_ADDR address is also used by the ASB logical transport. Parked slaves are not normally confused by the duplicated use of the LT_ADDR as they are only connected to the piconet physical channel during the time that the PSB transport is being used.


Logical Links
Some logical transports are capable of supporting different logical links, either concurrently multiplexed, or one of the choice. Within such logical transports, the logical link is identified by the logical link identifier (LLID) bits in the payload header of baseband packets that carry a data payload. The logical links distinguish between a limited set of core protocols that are able to transmit and receive data on the logical transports. Not all of the logical transports are able to carry all of the logical links. In particular the SCO and eSCO logical transports are only able to carry constant data rate streams, and these are uniquely identified by the LT_ADDR. Such logical transports only use packets that do not contain a payload header, as their length is known in advance, and no LLID is necessary.


ACL Control Logical Link (ACL-C)
The ACL control logical link (ACL-C) is used to carry LMP signaling between devices in the piconet. The control link is only carried on the default ACL logical transport and on the PSB logical transport (in the control information phase).The ACL-C link is always given priority over the ACL-U (see below) link when carried on the same logical transport.


User Asynchronous/Isochronous Logical Link (ACL-U)
The user asynchronous/isochronous logical link (ACL-U) is used to carry all asynchronous and isochronous framed user data. The ACL-U link is carried on all but the synchronous logical transports. Packets on the ACL-U link are identified by one of two reserved LLID values. One value is used to indicate whether the baseband packet contains the start of an L2CAP frame and the other indicates a continuation of a previous frame. This ensures correct synchronization of the L2CAP reassembler following flushed packets. The use of this technique removes the need for a more complex L2CAP header in every baseband packet (the header is only required in the L2CAP start packets), but adds the requirement that a complete L2CAP frame shall be transmitted before a new one is transmitted. (An exception to this rule being the ability to flush a partially transmitted L2CAP frame in favor of another L2CAP frame.)


User Synchronous/Extended Synchronous Logical Links (SCO-S/eSCO-S)
Synchronous (SCO-S) and extended synchronous (eSCO-S) logical links are used to support isochronous data delivered in a stream without framing. These links are associated with a single logical transport where data is delivered in constant sized units at a constant rate. There is no LLID within the packets on these transports, as only a single logical link can be supported, and the packet length and scheduling period are pre-defined and remain fixed during the lifetime of the link.

Variable rate isochronous data cannot be carried by the SCO-S or eSCO-S logical links. In this case the data must be carried on ACL-U logical links, which use packets with a payload header. Bluetooth technology has some limitations when supporting variable-rate isochronous data concurrently with reliable user data.


L2CAP Channels
L2CAP provides a multiplexing role allowing many different applications to share the resources of an ACL-U logical link between two devices. Applications and service protocols interface with L2CAP using a channel-oriented interface to create connections to equivalent entities on other devices.

L2CAP channel endpoints are identified to their clients by a channel identifier (CID). This is assigned by L2CAP, and each L2CAP channel endpoint on any device has a different CID.

L2CAP channels may be configured to provide an appropriate QoS to the application. L2CAP maps the channel onto the ACL-U logical link.

L2CAP supports channels that are connection-oriented and others that are group-oriented. Group-oriented channels may be mapped onto the ASB-U logical link, or implemented as iterated transmission to each member in turn over an ACL-U logical link.

Apart from the creation, configuration and dismantling of channels, the main role of L2CAP is to multiplex service data units (SDUs) from the channel clients onto the ACL-U logical links, and to carry out a simple level of scheduling, selecting SDUs according to relative priority.

L2CAP can provide a per channel flow control with the peer L2CAP layer. This option is selected by the application when the channel is established. L2CAPcan also provide enhanced error detection and retransmission to (a) reduce the probability of undetected errors being passed to the application and (b) recover from loss of portions of the user data when the baseband layer performs a flush on the ACL-U logical link.

In the case where an HCI is present, the L2CAP is also required to segment L2CAP SDUs into fragments that will fit into the baseband buffers, and also to operate a token based flow control procedure over the HCI, submitting fragments to the baseband only when allowed to do so. This may affect the scheduling algorithm.

[B][U]SECURITY:[/U][/B]
Today's wireless world means that data is being sent invisibly from device to device and person to person. This data, in the form of emails, photos, contacts, addresses and more needs to be sent securely.

Bluetooth wireless technology has, from its inception, put an emphasis on security while making connections among devices.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), made up of more than 8,000 members, has a Security Expert Group. It includes engineers from its member companies who provide critical security information and requirements as the Bluetooth wireless specification evolves.




IMPLEMENTING SECURITY
Developers that use Bluetooth wireless technology in their products have several options for implementing security. And there are three modes of security for Bluetooth access between two devices.
• Security Mode 1: non-secure
• Security Mode 2: service level enforced security
• Security Mode 3: link level enforced security
The manufacturer of each product determines these security modes. Devices and services have different security levels. For devices, there are two levels: "trusted device" and "untrusted device." A trusted device has already been paired with one of your other devices, and has unrestricted access to all services.

Services have three security levels:
- Services that require authorization and authentication
- Services that require authentication only
- Services that are open to all devices

There has been some confusion and misinformation surrounding security and Bluetooth wireless technology.

The reality is the encryption algorithm in the Bluetooth specifications is secure. This includes not just mobile phones that use Bluetooth technology, but also devices such as mice and keyboards connecting to a PC, a mobile phone synchronizing with a PC, and a PDA using a mobile phone as a modem, to name a few of the many use cases.
Cases where data has been compromised on mobile phones are the result of implementation issues. The Bluetooth SIG diligently works with members to investigate any issues that are reported to understand the root cause of the issue.

If it is a specification issue, we work with members to create patches and ensure future devices don't suffer the same vulnerability. This is an on-going process. The recently reported issues of advanced "hackers" gaining access to information stored on select mobile phones using Bluetooth functionality are due to incorrect implementation.

The names bluesnarfing and bluebugging have been given to these methods of illegal and improper access to information. The questions and answers on this page provide you with more information and address concerns for dealing with these security risks.
There has been some confusion and misinformation surrounding security and Bluetooth wireless technology.

The reality is the encryption algorithm in the Bluetooth specifications is secure. This includes not just mobile phones that use Bluetooth technology, but also devices such as mice and keyboards connecting to a PC, a mobile phone synchronizing with a PC, and a PDA using a mobile phone as a modem, to name a few of the many use cases.
Cases where data has been compromised on mobile phones are the result of implementation issues. The Bluetooth SIG diligently works with members to investigate any issues that are reported to understand the root cause of the issue.

If it is a specification issue, we work with members to create patches and ensure future devices don't suffer the same vulnerability. This is an on-going process. The recently reported issues of advanced "hackers" gaining access to information stored on select mobile phones using Bluetooth functionality are due to incorrect implementation.

The names bluesnarfing and bluebugging have been given to these methods of illegal and improper access to information. The questions and answers on this page provide you with more information and address concerns for dealing with these security risks. Now we have a good idea about bluetooth & its working.


Any other queries are welcomed about Bluetooth & Computer Networks.

regards,
sincerely,
Noman !

nice051 Saturday, December 08, 2007 12:16 PM

@ noman
thankyou noman bhai . I got the answer of my third question. but I am still confuse in first and secound question.
kindly if u know the answers of 1 and 2 , do reply.

Noman Saturday, December 08, 2007 09:55 PM

@ nice051

you are welcome brother. my pleasure.

+ I'm not sure about your first two question as they belong to Telecom system in Pakistan (& not to engineering theoratically) under PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) which is the regulatory authority of Telecommunication in Pakistan & prepare policies & regulations to be followed by all carriers operating in Pakistan.
Any Engg working in PTA or in private carrier (e.g. Orascom, Wateen etc) may better be able to answer your first 2 questions correctly by consulting the PTA regulation in this matter or the policy of the specified carrier.

If you are unable to find correct answer then you may contact a class mate of mine of MSTS who is working in Seimens Telecom as Network Engineer at e-mail naeemriaz888@hotmail.com by giving my reference.

regards,
sincerely,
Noman !

shahid12456 Monday, December 10, 2007 09:56 AM

@ nice
dear PTA assigns codes to the mobile companies like 0333, 0300, 0321, 0345. these codes are assigned to differentiate the number as we have area codes for land line numbers.

the subscribers limit for aparticular code is 5 million and as you know in pakistan past few years cellular density has rised so when company reaches the limit of 5 million it request PTA to assign another code to serve new potential 5 million customers.

hope i have answered ur queries


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