Bluetooth Everywhere

Alright, let’s continue to learn about the various intricacies of the Bluetooth specification by looking at another of one of the more common Bluetooth profiles: DUN.

Profile Name: Dial-up Networking Profile

Abbreviation: DUN

UUID:  0×1103

Description: The Dial-up Networking Profile (DUN) is a profile that largely depends on the functionality of the Serial Port Profile (SPP) in order to operate, as you can see from the image above. This profile is modeled after the connection mechanism that was widely used in the 1990’s for home computers to get access to the internet: the dial-up modem. Please note that even though dial-up modems are not available today, this profile is still widely used by laptops and other mobile devices to access the internet through a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone.

Common Implementations: laptop computers, desktop computers, mobile phones

Well, if you’ve heard any of the news, press releases, or blog postings about Bluetooth 3.0, then you should be as excited as I am about this stuff. It’s nicknamed Bluetooth 10x for a reason; we’re talking about sending your data at 24 Mb/s! However, some folks are a little confused about how all this stuff works, so please allow me to explain a few concepts.

First of all, let’s take a look at some wireless standards (you’re probably familiar with the first one):

• 802.11
• 802.15.1
• 802.15.4

So, in the past decade, the IEEE standards body came together, designed, and formed all of the wireless standards listed above. Now, Wi-Fi is a brand name of *an* implementation of 802.11 wireless standard. Wi-Fi is such a common brand name, it is synonymous as the only implementation of the 802.11 standard. But that’s not the case.

The same things goes for Bluetooth. Bluetooth is an implementation of the 802.15.1 wireless standard, but it is not necessarily the only implementation. Likewise, this pattern applies to ZigBee. The SunSpot wireless devices natively communicate over the 802.15.4 wireless protocol, but they do NOT implement the ZigBee protocol stack.

So here’s what you can expect in the new Bluetooth 3.0 devices that will be coming next year. Bluetooth 3.0 devices will be able to discover and search for services for remote Bluetooth 3.0, 2.1, 2.0, 1.1, and 1.0 devices. However, if both devices support Bluetooth 3.0, then when the data payload is being sent, the data will be sent over the 802.11 “channel” and not the 802.15.1 “channel”.

I hope this makes sense.

Just in case you didn’t notice, the Bluetooth specification is a huge spec. It’s over 1000 pages and covers alot of topics including advanced frequency hopping, low power states, communication parameters, and a whole bunch of other stuff. So, as I work on “Bluetooth for Java, 2ed”, I thought that it would be a good idea to create a tutorial on what all the profiles are, and what do they do. So let’s get started!

Profile Name: Serial Port Profile

Abbreviation: SPP

UUID: 0×1101

Description: The Serial Port Profile (SPP) is a profile that interacts directly with the RFCOMM layer in the Bluetooth protocol stack, and it’s one of the most commonly used profiles since the inception of Bluetooth. If you have an electronic device has has a serial port, or is capable of processing raw byte streams, then SPP would be a good choice if you wanted to wirelessly-enable that device. On a Bluetooth-enabled computer, this profile is used to create a virtual serial port, so that applications on the PC can communicate to wireless Bluetooth devices as if they were directly connected over an actual serial port. From an application developer’s perspective, using the SPP is very easy to do since there’s no protocol overhead that you have to follow - just send and receive byte streams.

Common Implementations: RS232 to Bluetooth converters, Bluetooth GPS devices, mobile phones, desktop computers

Ok, let me quote the Bluetooth SIG directly:

The Bluetooth SIG is pleased to announce that the Core Specification Working Group has published the Draft Bluetooth Core Specification Version 3.0 + High Speed (HS) for your review. The following feature enhancements encompass the major improvements incorporated into this Draft Bluetooth Core Specification:

• Generic Alternate MAC/PHY (AMP)
• 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL)
• Generic Test Methodology
• Enhanced Power Control
• HCI Read Encryption Key Size
• Unicast Connectionless Data

This of course is awesome news! Now if all those features look like “mumbo-jumbo” to you, then stay tuned to this blog because I’ll explain why these features are important. You can expect the new specification to be finalized before July. When will Bluetooth 3.0 +HS devices hit the market? My guess is that you’ll see some devices that use the new spec by the end of year.

I’m the type of person who gets enthusiastic about people or companies who decide to be a leader, and not a follower. Some of these companies have an engineer in their corporate offices who makes far-reaching business decisions based upon technical-prowess (that means that they do something because it’s really cool to do) and because of financial sound-ness (that means that they can make some money from it, too). One of these companies in my opinion is Broadcom. Last month, at the 2009 CES show, Broadcom conducted a technology demonstration of the next-generation Bluetooth technology (2.2/3.0 - we don’t know the version number yet). They were able to achieve data rates up to 24 Mb/s, and they achieved this by running Bluetooth data over a WiFi transport! This capability is a part of the Bluetooth AMP technology. So, for 2009 here’s what you can expect the Bluetooth landscape to look like:

• Bluetooth Low Energy 1.0
  • data rate - 1 Mb/s
  • battery life - 1 year
• Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR
  • data rate - 3 Mb/s
  • battery life - days
• Bluetooth 2.2/3.0 (Bluetooth High Speed Technology)
  • Two flavors available:
    • 802.11 / Wifi transport (called 10x technology)
      • data rate - 24 Mb/s
      •  battery life - hours
    • Ultra Wide Band (UWB) transport (called 100x technology)
      • data rate - 200-400 Mb/s
      • battery life - ?

The newest versions of the specifications should be completed in mid-2009. So are you excited?

Now, here’s something to get excited about. Last week, the Bluetooth SIG made an announcement about the next generation of Bluetooth technology. It’s probably WON’T be named Bluetooth 2.2, and it probably WILL be named Bluetooth 3.0. So why are the details so sketchy at this point? My guess is that they’re going to wait to make the big announcement at the CES show in January 2009. But anyway, here’s what we know:

• Bluetooth 10x will be the name of the spec that will utilize WLAN (802.11) radio technology
• Bluetooth 100x will be the name of the spec that will utilize UWB (Ultra Wide Band) radio technology

Since the radio technology for WLAN is widely available and ubiquitous, it makes sense that the 10x spec (and devices that implement the spec) will come out first. UWB is a tougher nut to crack, and I won’t expect to see any devices that use that technology until 2010 or 2011.

Of course, we have to wait until CES to see if any device manufacturers have done anything promising with UWB or Wireless USB.