Telecommunications: Bluetooth Technology - Research Paper Example

 Telecommunication I am consultant working for a big company, and have been researching the latest technologies of blue tooth. Through extensive research I found out the following regarding blue tooth technology: Blue Tooth: Blue tooth is named after the Danish King Harold Bluetooth, who rained from 940 to 985 A.D. and united Denmark and Norway. Bluetooth uses a short wave radio frequency on a 2.4 GHz range Bluetooth is relatively new wireless technology that allows equipment such as mobile phones and handheld computers to transmit data over short distances. Bluetooth is a communication standard, not a medical condition. The Bluetooth standard, developed by a telecommunications consortium involving Ericsson and Psion among others, aims to provide wireless communication over a short range at high bandwidth between small portable devices. In other words, it allows you to link devices without cables in the area of up to 10m surrounding an individual. 1. The Bluetooth standard can be added to many portable devices, such as laptops or personal digital assistants (PDAs), through the addition of specialist communications cards, such as PCMCIA cards. Be aware that these cards are often larger than standard cards due to the antenna required. The software operates in a similar way to adding a new modem. Bluetooth is now available built-in to a number of devices. It is not fast enough or powerful enough in terms of distance to act as a means of running a home network. In use, a palmtop or PDA would be able to connect through your phone to the internet while your phone was still in your pocket or briefcase. 2. Bluetooth can be used to replace many cable connections or infrared connections currently used to connect PDAs, phones and PCs. If you possess a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone, the biggest benefit is using a Bluetooth headset. This allows you to be unencumbered by a cable and because the headset is of a far smaller power than the phone, you keep a low-power transmitter near your head and the high-power transmitter away from you. The phone is controlled through voice dialing. Bluetooth Technology: Bluetooth wireless technology is a communications system that is short-ranged and is supposed to be a substitute for the cables connecting portable as well as fixed electronic devices. The most important characteristics of Bluetooth wireless technology is its robustness, low power, with low cost. A lot of features of the core requirement are optional, allowing product segregation. The Bluetooth core system comprises of what we can call an RF transceiver, baseband, as well as protocol stack. The system offers services that allow the connection of devices along with the exchange of a wide range of data classes among these devices. The Bluetooth wireless technology requirement is offered free-of-charge to a number of companies all around the world. The base of Bluetooth wireless technology comprises of the adopted conditions that are utilized and developed through the Bluetooth SIG’s global membership as stratagem for the production of products that are interoperable. The requirements of Bluetooth are classified as the most key specification, profiles, protocols, and transports as well. Manufacturers from a lot of industries are extremely busy in implementing the technology in their products to lessen the clutter of wires, make connections that are faultless; through this companies also can use stream stereo audio, transfer data as well as carry voice communications. Bluetooth technology has the tendency to operate in the 2.4 GHz, which is one of the unlicensed industrial, scientific, medical (ISM) radio bands. Bluetooth functionality is divided into separate types of connections known as "profiles". Each of the various scenarios outlined above involve a different profile. Not all Bluetooth devices support all profiles. For example, most phones support the Headset (HSP) and Handsfree (HFP) profiles, for connecting the phones to headsets and car kits, respectively. But not all phones support the Object Exchange (OBEX) profiles, which let you transfer files (like photos) (FTP) and/or information (like contacts and events) (OPP) to and from other devices. Another profile supported by only some phones is Dial-Up Networking (DUN), which lets you connect a laptop or PDA to the Internet via the phone. Other optional profiles support connecting to printers (BPP), keyboards (HID), and stereo headphones (A2DP, AVRC). (http://www.phonescoop.com/glossary/term.php?fid=38) Bluetooth technology is highly economical. While you have to subscribe to a cellular provider to utilize GSM or CDMA, by means of Bluetooth technology there is no cost related to the services, the only cost is that of the device. Bluetooth technology is completely an ad hoc technology that does not need any fixed infrastructure it is also very easy to install as well as set up. You don’t require wires to get connected. The procedure for a new user is simple – you get a Bluetooth branded product, verify the profiles on hand and connect it to a different Bluetooth device with the similar profiles. The following PIN code procedure is as trouble-free as when you punch in your PIN code number at the ATM machine. When you are not in your office or home, when you are on the road you can easily carry your personal area network (PAN) with you as well as can connect to other devices with the similar profile. The art of connecting things is becoming more and more complex every day. In this article, we will look at a method of connecting devices, called Bluetooth that can streamline the process. A Bluetooth connection is wireless and automatic, and it has a number of interesting features that can simplify our daily lives. (http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth.htm) Blue Tooth Protocol Stack: The Bluetooth protocol stack, like all digital communications protocols, is made up of layers. The uppermost layer is the Application group that contains specific Bluetooth applications (for example, a networking application). The Application group sits atop the entire stack and is not itself a protocol, though it is often considered a part of the stack. The remaining layers of the Bluetooth protocol can be viewed as two distinct functional groups. The Transport Protocol group always will include the Radio, Baseband, LMP (Link Manager), HCI, along with L2CAP (Logical Link Control as well as Adaptation Protocol) layers. The Middleware Protocol group includes the Bluetooth specific RFCOMM, OBEX (Object Exchange), TCS (Telephony Control protocol), and SDP (Service Discovery protocol) layers and a number of industry-standard subprotocols such as TCP/IP, PPP, and AT commands. The Host Control Interface, or HCI, is an optional interface via RS-232, USB, or UART. It connects the Bluetooth device to a host such as a PC, implementing the Middleware protocol group. HCI can be valuable in Bluetooth development work because it permits a simple, direct dialogue with the Bluetooth device via hexadecimal messages. This is the most rudimentary form of interaction with the Transport portion of the Bluetooth stack. Bluetooth development kits typically come with an HCI terminal application. There are currently three different ways for a full-blown analyzer such as the Tektronix BPA Series to get the information needed for independent mode synchronization. Synchronization may be via Master Inquiry, Slave Inquiry, or a special feature known as Fake Connection Response (FCR). In Piconet Mode, the Bluetooth protocol analyzer is a full and equal participant in the piconet being monitored. The instrument connects in the same way as other devices, and most full-featured analyzers can function as either master or slave. Because the analyzer itself is a Bluetooth-certified reference device, its reactions to piconet traffic quickly reveal any problems in the evolving application software. Logging captured Bluetooth traffic to an external hard disk (a feature available on some analyzers) permits detailed post-analysis of every stack layer. Hardware/Software Integration Much of the troubleshooting and interoperability work in a Bluetooth project happens during hardware/software integration. It is here that protocol analyzer features such as baseband acquisition, data triggering, decryption, and packet analysis are indispensable. The stack hierarchy display speed interpretation of acquired data. As already explained, over-the-air acquisition provides comprehensive information about Bluetooth transactions between devices, from basic protocol interchanges to payload content. To begin a data collection session, develops specify several parameters and modes as part of acquisition setup. These parameters typically include hopping patterns, time limits for synchronization, data logging method, and so forth. During acquisition, the analyzer may store logged information in a hard disk file and may produce a live display that scrolls as new packets are captured. It is also possible to filter certain packets such as ID, NULL, POLL, and access errors before they reach the log file. During software/hardware integration, it is often desirable to set a "trigger" that initiates logging only when specified conditions are met. (Of course, triggering also has plenty of uses in software development and quality assurance.) Triggering can reduce the amount of information that must be analyzed to locate a problem. In addition, the occurrence of a trigger proves that a defined event has happened. Two types of triggers are available: low-level and high-level. The former looks for baseband and transport layer-related events such as FHS packets, ID packets, CMP_name_req, etc. The high-level trigger monitors events in the middleware protocol group, specifically the RFCOMM and SDP (Service Discovery Protocol) layers. As a new Bluetooth produce design emerges, the hardware designer must determine as early as possible that it can be "discovered" and connected. As the design progresses, it is necessary to verify its ability to receive and transmit data, and test its reaction to bad data. Typically the hardware designer's Bluetooth verification work begins with the CHI terminal. The HCI terminal application, as supplied with a full-featured Bluetooth protocol analyzer, resides on the same PC used to send and receive data through the air interface. The HCI terminal can be used to verify and exercise various protocol layers as they are developed. Though an HCI terminal doesn't eliminate the need for a proper Bluetooth protocol analyzer, it can be a means of talking with a Bluetooth device without employing a fully functioning protocol stack. Typical functions include providing an ability to enter commands one-at-a-time in mnemonic (text) form or as hexadecimal data. Some Bluetooth protocol analyzers include error generation tools that can offer an array of challenges for the device-under-test. Some potential used of these tools include cross-checking error correcting algorithms such as FEC, HEC, and CRC; generating errors for baseband packets such as DM1, DM3, POLL, etc.; and introducing individual bit errors into the header, payload, or a custom-defined bit position. In quality assurance (QA) work, the challenge is to unmask any remaining design problems that might affect the Bluetooth device's prospects for certification. QA tasks use almost every feature of the Bluetooth protocol analyzer. The most basic assumption when using a Bluetooth protocol analyzer for QA is that the analyzer itself is fully Bluetooth-certified and complies with the latest Bluetooth SIG specifications and recommendations. Eventually, most new Bluetooth product designs will have to go through qualification at the Test Facility. Alternatively, the designs may be tested in-house and the resulting documentation sent to a Qualification Body for verification. The goal during QA is to make sure the device will get through the certification steps successfully on the first try. Bluetooth protocol analysis solutions vary in their approach to acquiring, storing, and displaying piconet data. Some self-contained analyzers can store captured traffic only up to the limited capacity of their on-board memory. In terms of real-world clock time, this equates to less than an adequate, but intermittent errors have a way of showing up unpredictably, occurring once in several hours or even days. Even more time can be stored if the logging process used data filtering. In particular, pre-acquisition filtering on the Baseband Access Error, ID, NULL, and POLL packets greatly reduces the amount of data gets stored on the disk. Not all Bluetooth devices use encrypted transmissions, but those that do will require complementary decryption capabilities in the protocol analyzer. Here again, the protocol analyzer should provide easy-to-use setup tools that guide the user through the necessary steps. In the more advanced Bluetooth protocol analyzers available today, the application's packet analyzer can display acquired traffic in either encrypted or decrypted form. Logged files are made up of both types. The packet analyzer can actually decrypt and display Bluetooth transactions in real time. Problems with Bluetooth: According to the radio waves, experts are afraid that there is a security issue with Bluetooth. It has so far floundered due to a lack of tightly standardized code for the communications protocol. This means that Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices developed by vendors such as Nokia and Siemens can only communicate with devices that use exactly the same standards. To overcome this problem, a new standardized version of the Bluetooth protocol has been developed which mobile device vendors will start shipping this spring, but many vendors are currently using different specifications. It should be noted that some vendors did succeed in demonstrating various working Bluetooth products. Due to technical problems and the high cost of Bluetooth devices, such as $250 for a Bluetooth PC card, early demand has been weak. This is hardly surprising given the exaggerated claims that vendors are failing to deliver on. But there was also embarrassment for a number of other major vendors, including software giant Microsoft, computer maker Hewlett-Packard and Swedish telecoms system maker Ericsson. Microsoft, which is developing the Stinger software platform for mobile devices, failed in its attempts to connect a Siemens' mobile phone with an HP Jornada Windows CE based handheld computer. (http://www.informationage.com/article/2001/march/bluetooth_vendors_suffer_teething_problems) Future of Bluetooth Once Bluetooth technology becomes a standard it will virtually eliminate the need for business travelers to purchase or carry numerous cables. It will enable many wireless connections among PCs, digital cameras, mobile phones and other electronic devices such as TV's, printers and monitors. The elimination of wires and the hassle of plugging them in is not only an easy and useful solution but also a cheaper one. All the proprietary cables come at a great cost not to mention the amount of space they take up and the time that goes into configuring the devices. So when the affordable Bluetooth wave will arrive it will be well received. After a slow start, Bluetooth is moving into a period of very rapid growth, offering many opportunities for hardware and software companies: from sales of 65mn Bluetooth-enabled devices in 2003, a total market of 1.2bn by 2009 is forecast. (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=296321) Bluetooth has a good future ahead for the reason that it meets a essential need of connectivity in close proximity, is the outcome of initiatives of nine leading communications as well as computer industry vendors include companies such as 3-COM, Ericsson, Lucent, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nokia, Toshiba etc. In view of the fact that the formation of the original group, approximately 1800 manufacturers all over the world have joined the fast moving initiative. As a result of achievement of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), implementation of smart phones as well as handheld devices, Bluetooth will have marvelous effects on daily life. Bluetooth has become very popular over the last few years as—among other things—one of the primary points of convergence between the computers and mobile phones. It is planned that the current Bluetooth standards will continue remain in place for lower-speed devices like mice, with the UWB version becoming available for devices that require faster data transmission, such as streaming video from a camera to a computer or television. (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060329-6488.html) Conclusion By researching the blue tooth technology I came to the conclusion that bluetooth is one of the most important technologies that can help in developing the mobile information society, blurring the restrictions between home, the office, as well as the outside world. The faultless connectivity promised via Bluetooth makes it likely to discover a variety of interactive as well as highly transparent personalized services which were even hard to dream of for the reason that complexity was concerned in making different devices talk to each other Work Cited http://www.phonescoop.com/glossary/term.php?fid=38 retrieved on 3 October 2007 http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060329-6488.html retrieved on 3 October 2007 http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=296321 retrieved on 3 October 2007 http://www.informationage.com/article/2001/march/bluetooth_vendors_suffer_teething_problems retrieved on 3 October 2007 http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth.htm retrieved on 3 October 2007 Appendix: Fig1.1 Fig 1.2 Bluetooth Securities Fig 1.3 Bluetooth Protocol Stack Read More