Due to widespread use of computers and electronic gadgets, every tabletop is now a maze of

wires connecting computers, peripherals and other devices. Experienced by all of us, the mess of
wires is the most unwanted, nevertheless the most unavoidable impediment on our desks.

Bluetooth technology provides a solution by interconnecting these devices over an inexpensive

yet reliable radio link. In the coming years it is expected that the entire electronic gadgetry will
feature a Bluetooth wireless link to take over any sorts of inter-device communication leaving
out desks with no wires but power cables.

What exactly is Bluetooth technology?

Bluetooth is nothing but a communication protocol (set of rules required to send digital
information over a digital communication channel; the language two electronic devices use to
communicate) defining the short-range communication standard among two (or more) radio
enabled devices. Brought into being by a couple of research students at Lund University
(Sweden) in collaboration with Ericsson, Bluetooth standard in now maintained by SIG (Special
Interest Group of Bluetooth) formed in 1988 when IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba joined
Ericsson in the venture.

Where did it get its name from?

The name comes from a Viking ‘Herald Blatand’ or Herald the Blue Tooth who was the king of
Denmark back in 900AD. King Bluetooth is attributed with uniting the Scandinavia specially
Denmark and Norway into a single kingdom and bringing in Christianity all over; the time when
most of the Europe was divided into religion-centered territories.

The Bluetooth Technology is metaphorically named after the king as it sets a standard for
communication regardless of manufacturer and the device itself.

Where does it falls under the wireless network classes:

Bluetooth falls under the WPAN (wireless personal area network) classification among the
wireless network classes. A brief representation of such classes and technologies falling under
them is demonstrated below:
The Architecture:

For Bluetooth communication there must be a connection between devices before the data can be
transferred (unlike IrDA, the infrared communication). The communication is always based on a
master-slave principle for setting up the connection. This means that control signaling is
responsibility of only one device, not both. However, it must be noted that master and slave can
switch sides; it’s just a matter of which device was rendered discoverable and which device
discovered the other while the connection was being made.

Though the connection is wireless, it is automatic and that’s the best feature of it if we compare
it with its competitors, and also one of the leading reason behind Bluetooth’s increasing
popularity.

The devices to communicate form a piconet (a PAN sub-class). In a piconet, two or more devices
can be connected to the network but they share the same medium (The designated radio
bandwidth in case of Bluetooth communication). For a Bluetooth piconet, the master
communicates with all the slaves (maximum 7 slaves can be connected to one master, making a
total of 8 devices in the piconet, the number 8 automatically makes sense to anybody even
slightly familiar with computer basics) and creates a point to multipoint setup.

Now, two question might pound one’s mind, how the devices establish a connection and how do
they share the same medium?

Creating a Bluetooth Connection

As u must have noticed while making a connection among two Bluetooth devices, both the
devices recognize each other’s type (desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone, Smartphone, PDA
etc). This is because every Bluetooth chipset is assigned with a unique 48-bit ID code (MAC
address for those who can understand the term) managed be the IEEE. These codes are divided
into ranges each specifying the type a device may fall into.

Whenever Bluetooth is powered on (and set Discoverable), the device sends out signals
broadcasting its ID code. Since Bluetooth protocol specifies a low power transmitter, the radio
range, as already stated, is a mere 10m approx. This makes other Bluetooth devices in equally
near vicinity to receive the signals.
When a device is powered on but does not broadcast its ID code, it is said to be in ‘Non-
Discoverable’ mode. Since the device is not disclosing its presence, another device cannot
recognize it and request a connection. However, this device itself can initiate communication by
listening to another’s transmitted signal, extract the ID and request for the connection.

Formation of a point-to-point connection:

Two Bluetooth devices will typically follow the following set of events for establishing a
connection, transferring data, and terminating the connection.
Formation of a point-to-multipoint connection:

A point to multipoint connection is formed in a same manner, except that after point-to-point
connection is established, the connected device is assigned another 3-bit ID. (This ID is not the
same as ID Code and is temporarily assigned to keep track of devices in the point-to-multipoint
network. Whereas, the ID codes are permanently hardwired on the Bluetooth chipset and are
unique among all devices that exist) The 3-bit ID helps in keeping track of devices within a
piconet.

A 3-bit ID can make a maximum of 8 different combinations. One is attributed to the master, the
rest 7 are assigned to each slave.

How does Bluetooth Share the Same Medium without Interfering?

First of all, as we know that Bluetooth is bounded with very short range radio, making a very less
probability of more than a couple of devices placed in each other’s range. Naturally, the far off
devices never interfere.

Let’s analogize the situation. There are 100 men sitting in a hall grouped in 10, totaling 10
groups. All the group members will obviously need to talk to each other. Naturally, every man
will talk in a voice loud enough for the group members to appreciate. This will also not create
interference among different groups present in the hall. On back of the mirror, if every single
person is shouting on top of his lungs, you can yourself picture the situation fairly well.
Now how is the interference avoided among the few devices lying in each other’s radio range?
Bluetooth communication is not assigned a separate band (assigning a band for exclusive use by
any technology makes the technology costly since the user has to pay the regulatory authority for
using that band) Therefore, it has to use the ISM band (Industrial, Scientific and Medical Band; a
free of cost, free-for-all band assigned by the International Telecom Union for short range radio
communication).

Consider a home environment with certain free band devices in operation. Now if you have a
comparative exposure of working these electronics, u must have experienced that sometimes
they interfere with each other because they work at a specified frequency. That’s why they are
tunable to adjust operating frequency in case there is a clash between two. For ease of
communication and automatic connectivity, a Bluetooth user can never have been faced down to
rectify the connectivity issues. Frequency hopping is the technique guiding the easy way out (not
to mention modern cordless phones which themselves support frequency hopping to avoid
interference).

Frequency hopping is a technique that makes a device to frequently change its operating
frequency. Frequently means hundreds of times a second (Bluetooth specifies frequency hop of
1600 times a second). A Bluetooth Master randomly selects 79 channels of the ISM band, lets
the Slave know about the selected channels and then the two devices communicate hopping
about these 79 channels. The technique practically eliminates any chance of interference.
Because if an interference occurs, it remains for 1/1600=0.625 microseconds; distorting an
amount of data that can easily be corrected by error correction techniques present in every digital
communication system.