Networking over

m
Bluetooth:
s s overview and issues
s
Pravin Bhagwat
Mobile Networking Group
IBM T. J. Watson Research
http://www.research.ibm.com/people/p/pravin
pravinb@us.ibm.com

IAB Wireless Workshop

Feb 29 - March 2, 2000
Sunnyvale, CA
Bluetooth

 A cable replacement technology

 1 Mb/s symbol rate
Why not use Wireless LANs?
 Range 10+ meters - power
 Single chip radio + baseband - cost
 at low power & low price point

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Value proposition of Bluetooth
Cordless
headset

mouse Data access

Cell point
phone

Internet access
Cable replacement

Ad hoc networking

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Bluetooth working group history
 February 1998: The Bluetooth SIG is formed
 promoter company group: Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia,
Toshiba
 May 1998: The Bluetooth SIG goes “public”
 July 1999: 1.0A spec (>1,500 pages) is published
 December 1999: ver. 1.0B is released
 December 1999: The promoter group increases to 9
 3Com, Lucent, Microsoft, Motorola
 February 2000: There are 1,500+ adopters
 adopters "enjoy" royalty free use of the Bluetooth
technology
 products must pass Bluetooth certification

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 New Applications

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Synchronization

User benefits
 Automatic synchronization of
calendars, address books, business
cards
 Push button synchronization
 Proximity operation

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Cordless Headset

Cordless
headset

User benefits
 Multiple device access
 Cordless phone benefits
 Hand’s free operation

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Usage scenarios examples
 Data Access Points
 Synchronization
 Headset
 Conference Table
 Cordless Computer
 Business Card Exchange
 Instant Postcard
 Computer Speakerphone

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 Bluetooth
Specifications

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Bluetooth Stack

Applications
IP
SDP RFCOMM

ol
ntr
Data

Co
L2CAP
Audio
Link Manager
Single chip with RS-232,
Baseband USB, or PC card interface
RF
 A hardware/software/protocol description
 An application framework
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Interoperability & Profiles

 A profile represents a default solution for a usage

model
 Vertical slice through the protocol stack
 Basis for interoperability and logo requirements
 Each Bluetooth device supports one or more
profiles

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 Technical
Overview

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Bluetooth Radio Specification

Applications
IP
SDP RFCOMM

ol
ntr
Data

Co
L2CAP
Audio
Link Manager
Baseband
RF

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 Radio
 Low Cost
 Single chip radio (minimize external components)
 Today’s technology
 Time divison duplex
 Low Power
 Standby modes Sniff, Hold, Park
 Low voltage RF
 Robust Operation
 Fast frequency hopping 1600 hops/sec
 Strong interference protection
 Fast ARQ
 Robust access code
 Forward header correction

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Radio

0 dBm Tx power

-20 Rx power @ 10 cm

 Allow low cost low IF

 Trade sensitivity for integration
 One chip radio is possible

-70 Rx power @ 10m

-91 C/I = 21 dB
Noise floor

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Baseband

Applications
IP
SDP RFCOMM

ol
ntr
Data

Co
L2CAP
Audio
Link Manager
Baseband
RF

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 Connection Setup

 Inquiry - scan protocol

 to lean about the clock offset
and device address of other
nodes in proximity

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 Piconet formation
 Page - scan protocol
Master
 to establish links with
nodes in proximity Active Slave

Parked Slave

Standby

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 Addressing
 Bluetooth device address (BD_ADDR)
 48 bit IEEE MAC address

 Active Member address (AM_ADDR)

 3 bits active slave address
 all zero broadcast address

 Parked Member address (PM_ADDR)

 8 bit parked slave address

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Piconet channel
FH/TDD
f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6

s1

s2

625 sec

1600 hops/sec

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Multi slot packets
FH/TDD
f1 f4 f5 f6

s1

s2

625 sec

Data rate depends on type of packet

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Packet Format

72 bits 54 bits 0 - 2745 bits

Access
Header Payload
code

Synchronization Address
identification Error correction
Packet Type
Filtering 1/3 rate FEC
Flow control
2/3 rate FEC
ARQ
ARQ scheme for
SEQN
the data
HEC

Smaller than an ATM cell !

Notice that there is no protocol type field
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 Physical Link Types

 Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO) Link

 slot reservation at fixed intervals
 No ARQ, No CRC
 FEC (optional)
 64 Kbps

 Asynchronous Connection-less (ACL) Link

 Polling access method
 ARQ, CRC
 FEC (optional)
 Symmetric data rate 108 - 433 Kbps
 Asymmetric data rate up to 723 Kbps

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Mixed Link Example

SCO ACL ACL SCO ACL ACL SCO ACL ACL

m

s1

s2

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Inter piconet communication

Cordless
headset
mouse
Cordles
s
headset

Cell phone
Cell phone

Cell phone Cordless

headset

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Scatternet

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Scatternet, scenario 2

How to schedule presence in

two piconets?

Forwarding delay ?

Missed traffic?

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Link Manager Protocol

Applications Setup and Management

of Baseband connections
IP
SDP RFCOMM
• Piconet Management

ol
ntr
• Link Configuration
Data Co
• Security
L2CAP
Audio LMP
Link Manager
Baseband
RF

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Link Manager Protocol

 Piconet Management
 Attach and detach slaves
 Master-slave switch
 Establishing SCO and ACL links
 Handling of low power modes ( Sniff, Hold, Park)

 Link Configuration
 packet type negotiation
 power control

 Security functions
 Authentication
 Encryption

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L2CAP

Applications Logical Link Control and

IP Adaptation Protocol
SDP RFCOMM

Data
• L2CAP provides
L2CAP • Protocol multiplexing
Audio
Link Manager • Segmentation and Re-assembly
• Quality of service negotiation
Baseband • Group abstraction
RF

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L2CAP Packet Format (CO)

15 bits 16 bits 0 - 64K bytes

Length DCID Payload

Baseband packets Minimum MTU is 48 bytes !

default is 672 bytes !
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L2CAP Packet Format (CL)

15 bits 16 bits 0 - 64K bytes

Length DCID PSM Payload

Baseband packets

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Serial Port Emulation using RFCOMM

Applications
IP
SDP RFCOMM

Data Serial Port emulation on top of a

L2CAP
packet oriented link
Audio • Similar to HDLC
Link Manager
• For supporting legacy apps
Baseband
RF

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Bluetooth Service Discovery Protocol

Applications
IP
SDP RFCOMM

Data

L2CAP
Audio
Link Manager
Baseband
RF

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 Example usage of SDP

 Establish L2CAP connection to remote device

 Query for services
 search for specific class of service, or
 browse for services
 Retrieve attributes that detail how to connect to the
service
 Establish a separate (non-SDP) connection to user the
service

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IP over Bluetooth V 1.0

Applications
IP
SDP RFCOMM
GOALS
Data  Internet access using cell phones
 Connect PDA devices & laptop
L2CAP
Audio computers to the Internet via LAN
Link Manager access points
Baseband
RF

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LAN access point profile

IP
Access Point
PPP

Why use PPP? RFCOMM

Security
Authentication L2CAP
Access control
Efficiency
header and data compression LMP
Auto-configuration
Lower barrier for deployment
Baseband

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Inefficiency of layering

Palmtop LAN access point

IP IP
packet oriented
PPP PPP
rfc 1662 byte oriented rfc 1662
RFCOMM RFCOMM
packet oriented Bluetooth
Bluetooth

 Emulation of RS-232 over the Bluetooth radio link could be

eliminated

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Terminate PPP at LAN access point

Palmtop Access Point

IP IP
PPP PPP ethernet

RFCOMM RFCOMM

Bluetooth Bluetooth

 PPP server function at each access point

 management of user name/password is an issue
 roaming is not seamless

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L2TP style tunneling

Palmtop Access Point PPP server

IP IP

PPP PPP

UDP UDP
RFCOMM RFCOMM IP IP
radio link radio link ethernet ethernet

 Tunneling PPP traffic from access points to the PPP server

 1) centralized management of user name/password
 2) reduction of processing and state maintenance at each access
point
 3) seamless roaming

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 IP over Bluetooth

Next steps

IP based network peer-to-peer Internet connectivity

connectivity connectivity for non-PC devices
IP over Decentralized techniques Investigation of the right
wireless media for link formulation, design point for
naming, addressing, and running IP over
routing toasters, light switches,
& fire alarms

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 Research challenges

Internet

Plug-n-play applications
cable modem keyboard
mouse Resource Discovery
m s
m
head set PC
Routing over scatternets
s s sm
Cordless base Techniques for link
s s formation
cell phone Palmpilot

Will the current solutions for each layer

work in this environment?

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 What is different in this scenario ?

cable modem keyboard

mouse
m s
m Connection oriented, low-
head set
power link technology
PC
s s sm Small, multi-hop networks
cordless
s base s Simple devices
cell phone Palmpilot

Isolated network

Dynamic network

Applications ---> services ----> routing ----> link creation

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 Link Formation

The problem does not exist

in most wired/wireless networks
x5
x1 y1 y2
Proximity Link

Low power modes require

x2 x4 x6 x8
careful use of broadcast
x3 x7
Maintaining connectivity in
absence of application traffic
seems wasteful

Hints from higher layer are needed

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 Routing over Scatternets

Nodes must co-operate to forward

packets (MANET style protocols)
x5
x1 y1 y2 Forwarding at Layer 2 or Layer 3?

x2 x4 x6 x8 Bridging or routing ?

x3 x7

What interface should be exported to the above layer?

Better coupling with the service discovery layer is needed

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 Service discovery

Need solutions for address allocation,

cable modem keyboard
mouse name resolution, service discovery
m s
m
head set PC Existing solutions in the Internet
s s sm depend on infrastructure
cordless
s base s Judicious use of Multicast/broadcast
cell phone Palmpilot
is needed

These goals are similar to what Zero-conf WG is already

working on

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Point to ponder

Will Zero-conf on top of MANET

on top of scatternet construction
Zero-conf algorithm solve our problem?
rm rs
Layered and simple, but potential
inefficiencies
rs sr rm
rs rs MANET
Cross-layer optimizations are
worth considering

Scatternet formation

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Final Remarks

• Zero-conf and Bluetooth can benefit from each other

• Similarly, MANET and Bluetooth can also benefit from

each other

• A new working group in IETF for IP over Bluetooth ?

• Multi-hopwireless networks will force us to re-

evaluate our assumptions about network layering.
Should IRTF start looking into those issues?

http://www.research.ibm.com/people/p/pravin

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