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Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras, and video game consoles over a secure, globally unlicensed short-range radio frequency. The Bluetooth specifications are developed and licensed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

Uses

Bluetooth is a radio standard and communications protocol primarily designed for low power consumption, with a short range (power-class-dependent: 1 metre, 10 metres, 100 metres) based on low-cost transceiver microchips in each device.

Bluetooth lets these devices communicate with each other when they are in range. The devices use a radio communications system, so they do not have to be in line of sight of each other, and can even be in other rooms, as long as the received transmission is powerful enough.

Bluetooth profiles

In order to use Bluetooth, a device must be compatible with certain Bluetooth profiles. These define the possible applications and uses.

List of applications

More prevalent applications of Bluetooth include:

• Wireless control of and communication between a cell phone and a hands-free headset or car kit. This was one of the earliest applications to become popular.
• Wireless networking between PCs in a confined space and where little bandwidth is required.
• Wireless communications with PC input and output devices, the most common being the mouse, keyboard and printer.
• Transfer of files between devices with OBEX.
• Transfer of contact details, calendar appointments, and reminders between devices with OBEX.
• Replacement of traditional wired serial communications in test equipment, GPS receivers, medical equipment and traffic control devices.
• For controls where infrared was traditionally used.
• Sending small advertisements from Bluetooth enabled advertising hoardings to other, discoverable, Bluetooth devices.
• Wireless controllers of game consoles—Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 use Bluetooth for their wireless controllers.

Bluetooth vs. Wi-Fi in networking

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi both have their places in today's offices, homes, and on the move: setting up networks, printing, or transferring presentations and files from PDAs to computers.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is implemented in a variety of new products such as phones, printers, modems, and headsets. Bluetooth is acceptable for situations when two or more devices are in proximity to each other and don't require high bandwidth. Bluetooth is most commonly used with phones and hand-held computing devices, either using a Bluetooth headset or transferring files from phones/PDAs to computers.

Bluetooth also simplified the discovery and setup of services. Wi-Fi is more analogous to the traditional Ethernet network and requires configuration to set up shared resources, transmit files, set up audio links (for example, headsets and hands-free devices), whereas Bluetooth devices advertise all services they actually provide; this makes the utility of the service that much more accessible, without the need to worry about network addresses, permissions and all the other considerations that go with typical networks.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi uses the same radio frequencies as Bluetooth, but with higher power output resulting in a stronger connection. Wi-Fi is sometimes, but rarely , called "wireless Ethernet." Although this description is inaccurate, it provides an indication of Wi-Fi's relative strengths and weaknesses. Wi-Fi requires more setup, but is better suited for operating full-scale networks because it enables a faster connection, better range from the base station, and better security than Bluetooth.

One method for comparing the efficiency of wireless transmission protocols such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is spatial capacity, or bits per second per square meter.

Computer Requirements

A personal computer must have a Bluetooth dongle in order to be able to communicate with other Bluetooth devices (such as mobile phones, mice and keyboards). While some portable computers and fewer desktop computers already contain an internal Bluetooth dongle, most computers require an external USB Bluetooth dongle. Unlike its predecessor, iRDA, in which each device requires a separate dongle, multiple Bluetooth devices can communicate with a computer over a single dongle.

Windows

Only Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later versions of Windows have native support for Bluetooth. Previous versions required the users to install their Bluetooth dongles' own drivers, which tended to clash with the operating system. Microsoft's own Bluetooth dongles (that are packaged with their Bluetooth computer devices) have no external drivers and thus require at least Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Specifications and Features

The Bluetooth specification was developed in 1994 by Sven Mattisson and Jaap Haartsen, who were working for Ericsson Mobile Platforms in Lund, Sweden. The specifications were formalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The SIG was formally announced on May 20, 1998. Today it has over 6000 companies worldwide. It was established by Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba, and Nokia, and later joined by many other companies. Bluetooth is also known as IEEE 802.15.1.

Bluetooth 1.0 and 1.0B

Versions 1.0 and 1.0B had many problems, and manufacturers had difficulties making their products interoperable. Versions 1.0 and 1.0B also had mandatory Bluetooth hardware device address (BD_ADDR) transmission in the handshaking process, rendering anonymity impossible at a protocol level, which was a major setback for services planned to be used in Bluetooth environments, such as Consumerium.

Bluetooth 1.1

• Many errors found in the 1.0B specifications were fixed.
• Added support for non-encrypted channels.
• Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI).

Bluetooth 1.2

This version is backward-compatible with 1.1 and the major enhancements include the following:

• Faster Connection and Discovery
• Adaptive frequency-hopping spread spectrum (AFH), which improves resistance to radio frequency interference by avoiding the use of crowded frequencies in the hopping sequence.
• Higher transmission speeds in practice, up to 721 kbps, as in 1.1.
• Extended Synchronous Connections (eSCO), which improve voice quality of audio links by allowing retransmissions of corrupted packets.
• Host Controller Interface (HCI) support for three-wire UART.

Bluetooth 2.0

This version, specified in November 2004, is backward-compatible with 1.x. The main enhancement is the introduction of an enhanced data rate (EDR) of 3.0 Mbps. This has the following effects:

• Three times faster transmission speed—up to 10 times in certain cases (up to 2.1 Mbit/s).
• Lower power consumption through a reduced duty cycle.
• Simplification of multi-link scenarios due to more available bandwidth.
• Further improved (bit error rate) performance.

Bluetooth 2.1

Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.1 + EDR is now available. The new version improves pairing, lowers power consumption and adds Near Field Communication.

Future of Bluetooth

The next version of Bluetooth technology, currently code-named Lisbon, includes a number of features to increase security, usability, and value of Bluetooth. The following features are defined:

• Automatic encryption change: allows encrypted links to change their encryption keys periodically, increasing security, and also allowing role switches on an encrypted link

• Extended inquiry response: provides more information during the inquiry procedure to allow better filtering of devices before connection. This information includes the name of the device, and a list of services, with other information.

• Sniff subrating: reduces the power consumption when devices are in the sniff low-power mode, especially on links with asymmetric data flows. Human interface devices (HID) are expected to benefit the most, with mouse and keyboard devices increasing the battery life from 3 to 10 times those currently used.

• QoS improvements: enable audio and video data to be transmitted at a higher quality, especially when best effort traffic is being transmitted in the same piconet.

• Simple pairing: radically improves the pairing experience for Bluetooth devices, while increasing the use and strength of security. It is expected that this feature will significantly increase the use of Bluetooth.

Bluetooth technology already plays a part in the rising Voice over IP (VOIP) scene, with Bluetooth headsets being used as wireless extensions to the PC audio system. As VOIP becomes more popular, and more suitable for general home or office users than wired phone lines, Bluetooth may be used in cordless handsets, with a base station connected to the Internet link.

The next version of Bluetooth after Lisbon, code-named Seattle, that will be called Bluetooth 3.0, has many of the same features, but is most notable for plans to adopt ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology. This will allow Bluetooth use over UWB radio, enabling very fast data transfers of up to 480 Mbit/s, synchronizations, and file pushes, while building on the very low-power idle modes of Bluetooth. The combination of a radio using little power when no data is transmitted and a high data rate radio to transmit bulk data could be the start of software radios. Bluetooth, given its world-wide regulatory approval, low-power operation, and robust data transmission capabilities, provides an excellent signaling channel to enable the soft radio concept.

On 28 March 2006, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group announced its selection of the WiMedia Alliance Multi-Band Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MB-OFDM) version of UWB for integration with current Bluetooth wireless technology.

UWB integration will create a version of Bluetooth wireless technology with a high-speed/high-data-rate option. This new version of Bluetooth technology will meet the high-speed demands of synchronizing and transferring large amounts of data, as well as enabling high-quality video and audio applications for portable devices, multi-media projectors and television sets, and wireless VOIP.

At the same time, Bluetooth technology will continue catering to the needs of very low power applications such as mice, keyboards, and mono headsets, enabling devices to select the most appropriate physical radio for the application requirements, thereby offering the best of both worlds.

The Draft High Speed Bluetooth Specification is available at the Bluetooth website.

Technical information

Communication and connection

A master Bluetooth device can communicate with up to seven devices. This network group of up to eight devices is called a piconet.

A piconet is an ad-hoc computer network, using Bluetooth technology protocols to allow one master device to interconnect with up to seven active devices. Up to 255 further devices can be inactive, or parked, which the master device can bring into active status at any time.

At any given time, data can be transferred between the master and one other device. However, the master switches rapidly from device to another in a round-robin fashion. (Simultaneous transmission from the master to multiple other devices is possible, but not used much.) Either device can switch roles and become the master at any time.

Bluetooth specification allows connecting two or more piconets together to form a scatternet, with some devices acting as a bridge by simultaneously playing the master role and the slave role in one piconet. These devices are planned for 2007.

Setting up connections

Any Bluetooth device will transmit the following sets of information on demand:

• Device name.
• Device class.
• List of services.
• Technical information, for example, device features, manufacturer, Bluetooth specification, clock offset.

Any device may perform an inquiry to find other devices to which to connect, and any device can be configured to respond to such inquiries. However, if the device trying to connect knows the address of the device, it always responds to direct connection requests and transmits the information shown in the list above if requested. Use of device services may require pairing or acceptance by its owner, but the connection itself can be started by any device and held until it goes out of range. Some devices can be connected to only one device at a time, and connecting to them prevents them from connecting to other devices and appearing in inquiries until they disconnect from the other device.

Every device has a unique 48-bit address. However, these addresses are generally not shown in inquiries. Instead, friendly Bluetooth names are used, which can be set by the user. This name appears when another user scans for devices and in lists of paired devices.

Most phones have the Bluetooth name set to the manufacturer and model of the phone by default. Most phones and laptops show only the Bluetooth names and special programs that are required to get additional information about remote devices. This can be confusing as, for example, there could be several phones in range named T610 (see Bluejacking).

Pairing

Pairs of devices may establish a trusted relationship by learning (by user input) a shared secret known as a passkey. A device that wants to communicate only with a trusted device can cryptographically authenticate the identity of the other device. Trusted devices may also encrypt the data that they exchange over the air so that no one can listen in. The encryption can, however, be turned off, and passkeys are stored on the device file system, not on the Bluetooth chip itself. Since the Bluetooth address is permanent, a pairing is preserved, even if the Bluetooth name is changed. Pairs can be deleted at any time by either device. Devices generally require pairing or prompt the owner before they allow a remote device to use any or most of their services. Some devices, such as Sony Ericsson phones, usually accept OBEX business cards and notes without any pairing or prompts.

Certain printers and access points allow any device to use its services by default, much like unsecured Wi-Fi networks. Pairing algorithms are sometimes manufacturer-specific for transmitters and receivers used in applications such as music and entertainment.

Air interface

The protocol operates in the license-free ISM band at 2.45 GHz. To avoid interfering with other protocols that use the 2.45 GHz band, the Bluetooth protocol divides the band into 79 channels (each 1 MHz wide) and changes channels up to 1600 times per second. Implementations with versions 1.1 and 1.2 reach speeds of 723.1 kbit/s. Version 2.0 implementations feature Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) and reach 2.1 Mbit/s. Technically, version 2.0 devices have a higher power consumption, but the three times faster rate reduces the transmission times, effectively reducing power consumption to half that of 1.x devices (assuming equal traffic load).

Bluetooth differs from Wi-Fi in that the latter provides higher throughput and covers greater distances, but requires more expensive hardware and higher power consumption. They use the same frequency range, but employ different multiplexing schemes. While Bluetooth is a cable replacement for a variety of applications, Wi-Fi is a cable replacement only for local area network access. Bluetooth is often thought of as wireless USB, whereas Wi-Fi is wireless Ethernet, both operating at much lower bandwidth than the cable systems they are trying to replace. However, this analogy is not entirely accurate since any Bluetooth device can, in theory, host any other Bluetooth device—something that is not universal to USB devices.

Many USB Bluetooth adapters are available, some of which also include an IrDA adapter. Older (pre-2003) Bluetooth adapters, however, have limited services, offering only the Bluetooth Enumerator and a less-powerful Bluetooth Radio incarnation. Such devices can link computers with Bluetooth, but they do not offer much in the way of services that modern adapters do.

Security

Bluetooth implements authentication and key derivation with custom algorithms based on the SAFER+ block cipher. The initialization key and master key are generated with the E22 algorithm. The E0 stream cipher is used for encrypting packets. This makes eavesdropping on Bluetooth-enabled devices more difficult.

Social concerns

Security concerns

2003:
In November 2003, Ben and Adam Laurie from A.L. Digital Ltd. discovered that serious flaws in Bluetooth security may lead to disclosure of personal data. It should be noted, however, that the reported security problems concerned some poor implementations of Bluetooth, rather than the protocol itself.

In a subsequent experiment, Martin Herfurt from the trifinite.group was able to do a field-trial at the CeBIT fairgrounds, showing the importance of the problem to the world. A new attack called BlueBug was used for this experiment.

2004:
In April 2004, security consultant firm @stake (now Symantec) revealed a security flaw that makes it possible to crack conversations on Bluetooth based wireless headsets by reverse engineering the PIN.

This is one of a number of concerns that have been raised over the security of Bluetooth communications. In 2004 the first purported virus using Bluetooth to spread itself among mobile phones appeared on the Symbian OS. The virus was first described by Kaspersky Lab and requires users to confirm the installation of unknown software before it can propagate.

The virus was written as a proof-of-concept by a group of virus writers known as 29A and sent to anti-virus groups. Thus, it should be regarded as a potential (but not real) security threat to Bluetooth or Symbian OS since the virus has never spread in the wild.

In August 2004, a world-record-setting experiment (see also Bluetooth sniping) showed that the range of Class 2 Bluetooth radios could be extended to 1.78 km (1.08 mile) with directional antennas. This poses a potential security threat because it enables attackers to access vulnerable Bluetooth-devices from a distance beyond expectation. However, such experiments do not work with signal amplifiers. The attacker must also be able to receive information from the victim to set up a connection. No attack can be made against a Bluetooth device unless the attacker knows its Bluetooth address and which channels to transmit on.

2005:
In April 2005, Cambridge University security researchers published results of their actual implementation of passive attacks against the PIN-based pairing between commercial Bluetooth devices, confirming the attacks to be practicably fast and the Bluetooth symmetric key establishment method to be vulnerable. To rectify this vulnerability, they carried out an implementation which showed that stronger, asymmetric key establishment is feasible for certain classes of devices, such as handphones.

In June 2005, Yaniv Shaked and Avishai Wool published the paper "Cracking the Bluetooth PIN1," which shows both passive and active methods for obtaining the PIN for a Bluetooth link. The passive attack allows a suitably equipped attacker to eavesdrop on communications and spoof if they were present at the time of initial pairing. The active method makes use of a specially constructed message that must be inserted at a specific point in the protocol, to make the master and slave repeat the pairing process. After that, the first method can be used to crack the PIN. This attack's major weakness is that it requires the user of the devices under attack to re-enter the PIN during the attack when the device prompts them to. Also, this active attack probably requires custom hardware, since most commercially available Bluetooth devices are not capable of the timing necessary.

In August 2005, police in Cambridgeshire, England, issued warnings about thieves using Bluetooth-enabled phones to track other devices left in cars. Police are advising users to ensure that any mobile networking connections are de-activated if laptops and other devices are left in this way.

2006:
In April 2006, researchers from Secure Network and F-Secure published a report that warns of the large number of devices left in a visible state, and issued statistics on the spread of various Bluetooth services and the ease of spread of an eventual Bluetooth worm.

In October 2006, at the Luxemburgish Hack.lu Security Conference, Kevin Finistere and Thierry Zoller demonstrated and released a remote root shell over Bluetooth on Mac OSX 10.3.9 and 10.4. They also demonstrated the first Bluetooth PIN and Linkkeys cracker, which is based on the research of Wool and Shaked.

Health concerns

Bluetooth uses the microwave radio frequency spectrum in the 2.4 GHz to 2.4835 GHz range. Previous electromagnetic hazard studies dating from the 1950s to the 1980s, including more recent studies, concluded that low power signals with frequencies as high as 1.5 GHz to 2 GHz do cause irreversible damage to human tissue. The radiated output power of Bluetooth devices is high when compared to other widely used mobile devices, so it is assumed that the potential for health risks are also correspondingly higher. Bluetooth devices can operate continuously or sporadically (on demand), so total exposure to EMF radiation is variable.

Origin of the name and the logo

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Bluetooth" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Bluetooth was named after a late 900s king, Harald Bluetooth King of Denmark and Norway. He is known for his unification of previously warring tribes from Denmark (including Scania, present-day Sweden, where the Bluetooth technology was invented), and Norway. Bluetooth likewise was intended to unify different technologies, such as computers and mobile phones.

The name may have been inspired less by the historical Harald than the loose interpretation of him in The Long Ships by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson, a Swedish Viking-inspired novel.

The Bluetooth logo merges the Nordic runes analogous to the modern Latin H and B: (Haglaz) and (Berkanan) forming a bind rune. The logo is similar to an older logo for Beauknit Textiles, a division of Beauknit Corporation. That logo, using the connection of a reversed K and B for Beauknit, is wider and has rounded corners, but is otherwise the same.

Bluetooth Consortium

In 1998, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, and Nokia, formed a consortium and adopted the code name Bluetooth for their proposed open specification. In December 1999, 3Com, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, and Motorola joined the initial founders as the promoter group. Since that time, Lucent Technologies transferred their membership to their spinoff Agere Systems, and 3Com has left the promoter group.

See also

• Bluetooth profile
• Bluetooth stack
• Bluetooth protocol
• Advanced Audio Distribution Profile
• Bluejacking - sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices
• Bluesnarfing - unauthorized access of information from a wireless device through a Bluetooth connection
• Cable spaghetti — a problem wireless technology hopes to solve
• Near Field Communication
• Origin of the word Bluetooth
• RooTooth
• Salutation
• Service Location Protocol
• Ultra-wideband
• Universal Plug and Play
• Vehicular communication systems
• Wibree A complementary standard with lower power consumption, developed by Nokia
• Wireless USB
• ZigBee A low power light weight wireless protocol in the 2.4 G band

References

1. http://www.bluetooth.com/Bluetooth/Connect/Products/Product_Details.htm?ProductID=2951
2. "The bluetooth blues". Information Age. 2001-05-24. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
3. "Bluetooth Special Interest Group Launches Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate" (Press release). Bluetooth SIG. 2004-11-08. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
4. http://www.bluetooth.com/Bluetooth/Press/SIG/BLUETOOTH_SIG_IMPROVES_USER_EXPERIENCE.htm
5. "Simple Pairing Whitepaper" (PDF). Version V10r00. Bluetooth SIG. 2006-08-03. Retrieved 2007-02-01. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
6. Juha T. Vainio (2000-05-25). "Bluetooth Security". Helsinki University of Technology. Retrieved 2007-02-01. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
7. "The Bunker - Bluetooth". Retrieved 2007-02-01.
8. "BlueBug". trifinite.org. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
9. John Oates (2004-06-15). "Virus attacks mobiles via Bluetooth". The Register. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
10. "Long Distance Snarf". trifinite.org. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
11. Ford-Long Wong, Frank Stajano and Jolyon Clulow (2005-04). "Repairing the Bluetooth pairing protocol" (PDF). University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2007-02-01. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
12. Yaniv Shaked, Avishai Wool (2005-06). "Cracking the Bluetooth PIN". School of Electrical Engineering Systems. Retrieved 2007-02-01. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
13. "Phone pirates in seek and steal mission". Cambridge Evening News. Retrieved 2006-02-01.
14. "Going Around with Bluetooth in Full Safety" (PDF). Retrieved ?. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
15. "NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation Report #2003-0111-2909" (PDF). National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. 2003-08. Retrieved 2007-02-01. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

External links

Official

• Bluetooth.com
• Bluetooth.com specifications - Approved specifications freely available
• Bluetooth.org — The Official Bluetooth Membership Site - Specifications (including those under development) available to registered users
• Bluetooth Assigned Numbers

Other

• How Bluetooth Works at HowStuffWorks
• PLA Bluetooth Module
• Official Linux Bluetooth protocol stack
• Bluetooth tutorial - Technical review, usage model.
• Bluetooth - Directory & Informational Resource
• BluejackQ, website dedicated to Bluejacking
• Bluetooth Mouse Review
• Bluetooth Tutorials and Articles

• Bluetooth
• Networking standards
• Mobile computer