Bluetooth Technology - Assignment Example

Running Header: Bluetooth Technology Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Bluetooth technology is a global short-range standard which lets a wide range of devices that are electronic to connect and even communicate with one another. Bluetooth can also be viewed as an open wireless protocol that is used for data exchange on small distances by use of short radio waves form mobile and other fixed devices hence creating a personal area network. Bluetooth technology is generally a cable-replacement technology that allows various devices like MP3 players, PCs and peripherals, mobile phones, and headsets devices to connect. Bluetooth technology was created and launched in 1994 by a Swedish company, Ericson and introduced officially in 1998 (Garg 43). Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is a group formed in 1998 and manages the Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth SIG founding members includes Nokia, Intel, Ericsson, Toshiba, and IBM. Bluetooth technology was initially designed in order to allow voice and data exchange at rates of up to 1Mbps/second. The initial range of Bluetooth coverage revolved around 5meters although after its expansion it attains a range of 10meters in 700-800kb bandwidth. Bluetooth specifications The Bluetooth transmission frequency sits between 2.4 to 2.4835GHz and a maximum speed of transfer of 2.0Mbps per second. Bluetooth have improved with time from Bluetooth 2.1 to recently modified Bluetooth 3.0. The Bluetooth 3.0 is 160times faster than Bluetooth 2.1 model. The core system of a Bluetooth consists of a host and one or more controllers. A host is a computing device, peripheral, cellular telephone, access point to PSTN network or LAN etc. A host is defined as all the layers that are under the profiles and on top of the Host Controller Interface (HCI) (Muller 87). The layers below HCI are usually defined as the controllers. Controllers are usually classified into two types including an alternate MAC/PHY (AMP) and a basic rate/enhanced data rate (BR/EDR). A basic rate/enhanced data rate (BR/EDR) controller includes baseband, radio, baseband, and HCI. An alternate MAC/PHY (AMP) controller includes AMP MAC, Protocol Adaptation layer (PAL), AMP PAL (protocol adaptation layer), and optionally HCI. Bluetooth is crucial as it allows data transfer without the use of wires. Bluetooth Core System Architecture The figure 1 shows the Bluetooth core system that consists of blocks. They together provide services for supporting connections of various devices while exchanging application data within a short range links that are wireless. HCI (Host-Controller Interface) is an interface command to link manager and baseband controller giving a uniform method that access Bluetooth baseband abilities (Miller and Chatschik 123). RF and baseband The block of RF has a role of transmitting as well as receiving information packets within the physical channel. The control path between the RF block and the baseband enables the baseband block manage the timing and frequency carrier of the RF block. A stream of data is transformed to and from the physical channel and the baseband to the format that is required by the RF block. Link controller Link controller has a role of decoding and encoding Bluetooth packets from the parameters and payload related to the logical transport, logical link, and physical channel. The link controller carries the protocol signalling of link control in a close combination with the scheduling function of the resource manager that is used to communicate flow control as well as retransmission, and acknowledgement of request signals. The signals interpretation is usually characterized by the logical transport related with baseband packet. Control and interpretation of the link control signalling is usually related with the scheduler of resource manager (Miller and Chatschik 123). Device manager Device manager is the functional block that is found within the baseband and it controls the Bluetooth’s system behaviour behaviour. It is responsible for all the Bluetooth system operations which are not related directly to data transport including inquiring if there is presence of any Bluetooth device that is enabled within the vicinity and even connecting to them or enabling the local Bluetooth enabled device that is discoverable or even connected by any other devices. The device manager asks for access to the transport medium from the baseband resource controller so as to undertake its functions. The device manager control the behaviour of local device implied by several commands of HCI including managing any stored link keys, device local name, or any other functionality (Miller and Chatschik 123). Baseband resource manager Baseband resource manager has a role of accessibility to the radio medium. It has two main roles whereby at its heart is a scheduler that grants time on the physical channels to all entities that have negotiated a contract accessibility. The other main role is to negotiate contracts accessibility with the entities. An access contract is efficiently a commitment for delivering a specific QoS that is needed to give a user application with a performance that is expected. Link manager Link manager on the other hand has a role of creating, modifying, and releasing logical links and if necessary, their related logical transports as well as parameters updates related to physical links between the devices. This is attained by link manager through communicating with the link manager within the Bluetooth devices by use of the Link Management Protocol (LMP). The LMP allows the new logical links creation and logical transports between devices whenever necessary and also general link control and transport attributes like the encryption enabling on the logical transport, the transmit power adaption of physical link and QoS setting adjustment for a logical setting (Miller and Chatschik 123). Channel manager Channel manager is responsible for creation, management, and destruction of L2CAP channels for service protocols transport and data streams application. The channel manager utilizes the L2CAP protocol in interacting with a channel manager on a remote device towards creating the L2CAP channels as well as connecting their endpoints to the suitable entities. The channel manager usually interacts with its local manager towards making new links that are logical as well as configure the links to give the needed QoS for the data type that is being transported (Miller and Chatschik 124). L2CAP resource manager L2CAP resource manager block has a role of managing the ordering of PDU fragments submission to the baseband as well as some relative scheduling between the channels. This is towards ensuring that L2CAP channels that are having QoS commitments are not deprived of accessibility to physical channels as a result of exhaustion of Bluetooth controller resource. This is needed as the architectural model does not take the assumption that the Bluetooth controller has limitless buffering or even that the HCI is a pipe having infinite bandwidth. AMP Manager Protocol AMP Manager Protocol is accountable for remote AMP discovering as well as determining their availability. It also collects remote AMP information that is relevant. The information collected is utilized towards setting up and managing physical links of AMP. The AMP manager utilizes a dedicated signalling channel of L2CAP in communicating with remote AMP manager. Figure 1 Basic blocks of the Bluetooth core system architecture (Miller and Chatschik 124) Piconet Piconet is the Bluetooth network. Bluetooth piconet is also referred to as group of devices that are within the radio range that usually share the physical radio channel. It is the situations whereby two devices are connected with device starting the connection being referred as masters while the others are referred to as slaves. This type of ad-hoc network is usually called piconet. The Bluetooth communication assigns one of the Bluetooth devices to act as a main controlling unit or master unit. This enables the system of Bluetooth to be non-contention based or have no collisions. Therefore, a Bluetooth device is assigned a particular time for data transmission without colliding or overlapping with other units that operate in the same Piconet. They are two types of channels used for communication in Piconet including Basic piconet channel and Adapted piconet channel (Lawrence 132). The basic piconet channel is used mainly for communication between the devices that are connected during normal operation. Adapted piconet channel on the other hand has the transmitting frequencies of the slaves same as those of the preceding master. This means that frequency is not recomputed between subsequent slave packets and master. Piconet is such a network with one master and one or several slaves. A point-to-point is when there is only one master and more than one slave while point-to-multipoint is when there are several slaves. Slaves can be as much as 7 in a point-to-multipoint network (Lawrence 132). Piconet can be setup in such a way that they can interact with several other piconets to form a larger networks referred to as Scatter-nets. This allows the master of one Piconet operate as a slave for another Piconet. Figure 2 Piconet Piconet 3 Advantages of Bluetooth Technology Bluetooth is inexpensive and one of the cheapest technologies compared to other wireless technologies. This is because they use fewer materials to manufacture. Atomization is at ones convenience, it usually saves time when automized to connect with devices enabled especially for the first time of installation. Thereafter, there is no need for any technical person to re-install after every time. Bluetooth has simple features which are simple to use hence anybody can use it regardless of technological knowledge he has. The Bluetooth technology is universally used and accepted with no brand limits or restrictions (Misic 67). Brand names do not limit its use globally. The use of Bluetooth services is free of charge when one is using it. It is a low power device and low processing hence, it can be used in devices powered by small batteries. The Bluetooth allows sharing of data and voice communications. Disadvantages of Bluetooth Bluetooth only offers a data rate of 1MBps as compared to infrared that has a rate of 4MBps. Internet use through Bluetooth is very slow hence not advisable to use internet in all functions as it can be inefficient. There is a high probability of attack and interception through Bluetooth due to its greater range and radio frequency. Therefore, security is a great key aspect to the specification of Bluetooth (Misic 90). Conclusion Bluetooth is a great technology that improves the communication technology. This is due to the great role it plays in reducing the number of cords attached to the devices. Bluetooth remains one of the best short range wireless technologies as compared to others. It is through Bluetooth technology that we are capable of connecting two devices such as hands-free headset and mobile phones without using wires. The technology can as well be used to connect internet or data transfer between devices. It offers as an alternative for data transfer in cases of corrupt pen drives and flashes. It also eliminates interferences that arise as a result of other wired devices. Therefore, it is recommendable for anyone willing to use wireless technology to utilize Bluetooth technology due to its high efficiencies. Works Cited Garg, Kumkum. Mobile Computing: Theory and Practice. New Delhi, ND: 2010. Lawrence, Harte. Introduction to Bluetooth, Technology, Market, Operation, Profiles, and Services. New York, NY: Althos, 2004. Miller, B. and Chatschik, B. Bluetooth Revealed: The Insider’s Guide to an Open Specification for Global Wireless Communications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000. Misic, J. and Misic, V. “Modeling Bluetooth piconet performance.” IEEE Communication Letters 7.1 (2003): 18-20. Misic, J., Chan and Misic, V. “Admission control in Bluetooth Piconets”. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 53.3 (2004): 890–911. Muller, N. Bluetooth Demystified. 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