Understanding Bluetooth™
Contents
1. Understanding Bluetooth January 2002 Executive Summary Bluetooth wireless technology is finally here Originally conceived as a low power short range radio technology designed to replace cables for interconnecting devices such as printers keyboards and mice its perceived potential has evolved into far more sophisticated usage models The requirement to do this in a totally automated seamless and user friendly fashion without adding appreciable cost weight or power drain to the associated host is an enormous engineering challenge Bluetooth devices can form piconets of up to seven slaves and one master enabling discovery of services and subsequent implementation of many varied usage models including wireless headsets Internet bridges and wireless operations such as file exchange data synchronization and printing Despite talk of Bluetooth competing with wireless LANs Bluetooth products work over shorter distances and are designed to solve different problems The Bluetooth SIG publishes the Bluetooth specification The IEEE has formed the 802 15 working group to define standards for wireless PANs The 802 15 1 standard for WPAN s will be modeled after the Bluetooth specification from the Bluetooth SIG Microsoft has announced support for Bluetooth in the next release of Windows XP The waters of Bluetooth security have yet to be tested However the Bluetooth specification has a robust key management scheme built i2. bluetooth com developer specification specification asp gt A good explanation of the seven layer OSI Reference Model http www cisco com univercd cc td doc cisintwk ito_doc introint htm xtocid 130454 Bluetooth support in Windows XP http www microsoft com hwdev tech network bluetooth gt Bluetooth Security Architecture white paper http www bluetooth com developer whitepaper whitepaper asp 11 Bluetooth is a trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG Inc WPAN is a trademark of the IEEE Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation
3. devices such as cell phones headsets keyboards PDAs vending machines cameras and bar code readers Usage model examples Following are examples of some usage models for Bluetooth devices Wireless headset The leading adoption of Bluetooth will initially be in the arena of mobile phones Nearly every major mobile phone manufacturer has already released Bluetooth enabled models of their popular phones The driver for this adoption is the ability to use a wireless headset with the phone The impact of mobile phone radiation on health has been under scrutiny for some time especially since the phone is usually held near the head The radio frequency energy emitted by a Bluetooth wireless headset is a fraction of that emitted by a mobile phone Additionally the convenience of being cordless means the phone can be used even if it is in a briefcase or the trunk Internet bridge Bluetooth wireless technology can be used to allow a mobile phone or cordless modem to provide Dial Up Networking DUN capabilities for a PC allowing it to connect to the Internet without a physical phone line This enables a laptop to automatically utilize the user s nearby cell phone to dial and connect to a dial up service The user doesn t need to touch the phone which might be in a briefcase or coat pocket File exchange The ability to perform peer to peer file exchange without the presence of a network infrastructure has many advantages For example a sales
4. link thus saving power and reducing the potential for interfering with other nearby networks The Evolving Bluetooth Standard The Bluetooth SIG Since the original Bluetooth specification was published in 1999 more than 2000 additional companies have signed on as associate members able to participate in development of future standards and extensions by contributing efforts to various working groups The Current Specification The current specification Ver 1 1 defines a radio which operates in the unregulated Industrial Scientific and Medical ISM band as follows 2 4 GHz FHSS w 1600 hops s over 79 channels 1 Mbps The fundamental elements of a Bluetooth product are defined in the two lowest protocol layers the radio layer and the baseband layer Included in these layers are hardware tasks such as frequency hopping control and clock synchronization as well as packet assembly with associated FEC Forward Error Correction and ARQ Automatic Repeat Request The link manager layer is responsible for searching for other Bluetooth devices creating and tearing down piconets as well as authentication and encryption Higher layer definitions include the Bluetooth profiles Enhancing the Specification The Bluetooth SIG is currently working on a new specification due for publication sometime in 2002 In the interest of maintaining backwards compatibility most of this work is confined to describing new profiles One of the
5. or offer When a Bluetooth device requires a service it begins a discovery process by sending out a query for other Bluetooth devices and the information needed to establish a connection with them Once other Bluetooth devices are found and communication is established the Service Discovery Protocol SDP is utilized to determine what services are supported and what kinds of connections should be made In order for the above to happen devices willing to connect must be located Some devices may be set up so that they are invisible In this case they can scan for other Bluetooth devices but will not respond if they are likewise queried Applications determine whether a device is connectable or discoverable and thus applications determine the topologies of networks and their internal hierarchies ACL and SCO Links Once a connection has been established between two devices an Asynchronous Connection Less ACL link is formed between them An ACL link provides packet switched communication and is the most common link used to handle data traffic A master has the option to change an ACL link to a Synchronous Connection Oriented SCO link An SCO link provides a QoS feature by reserving time slots for transmission of time critical information such as voice A piconet can have up to three full duplex voice links Standard profiles to enable usage models The number and variety of different Bluetooth usage models mean that Bluetooth devices must c
6. PC peripherals PC companions and devices bridged to network resources through a PC Support for Bluetooth wireless technology is not in the first release of Windows XP because there is not a sufficient array of production quality devices that conform to the Bluetooth specification for Microsoft to test However Microsoft is actively developing support for Bluetooth technology and will ship this support in a future release Quality reliability and compatibility are principal ship goals for Windows XP and Microsoft will not compromise on the customer experience Bluetooth Security Bluetooth security when compared with WLAN security is both more complex and simpler It is more complex in the sense that there are many different options for security based on different application scenarios It is simpler in the sense that for the most part they are transparent to the user With WLANs it is up to the network administrator to add security at higher levels With Bluetooth since the Bluetooth spec includes all levels higher level security features are already built into the devices when appropriate Bluetooth security includes both authentication and confidentiality and is based around the SAFER encryption algorithm SAFER is a block cipher but in this application is implemented as a stream cipher SAFER was thoroughly analyzed and tested during the NIST s search for a national encryption standard Although some versions were foun
7. all from a large collection of different protocols and functions to implement a specific usage model In order to ensure that all usage models will work among devices from many different manufacturers this collection of protocols and functions must be standardized Bluetooth profiles are standardized definitions of protocols and functions required for specific kinds of tasks The current Bluetooth Standard 1 1 contains 13 profiles with more being continually added One or more of these profiles are utilized when implementing various usage models Some profiles are dependent upon others Some of the most basic are General Access Profile GAP This profile is required by all usage models and defines how Bluetooth devices discover and connect to one another as well as defines security protocols All Bluetooth devices must conform to at least the GAP to ensure basic interoperability between devices Service Discovery Application Profile SDAP The SDAP uses parts of the GAP to define the discovery of services for Bluetooth devices Serial Port Profile This profile defines how to set up and connect virtual serial ports between two devices This serial cable emulation can then be used for tasks such as data transfer and printing Generic Object Exchange Profile GOEP GOEP is dependent on the Serial Port Profile and is used by applications to handle object exchanges This capability is then used in turn by other profiles to perform such functi
8. and moving devices within or entering a POS in this case 10 m of a person who is either stationary or moving The 802 15 1 standard is being developed to ensure coexistence with 802 11 Task Group 2 is investigating and recommending practices to facilitate the coexistence of WPANSs and WLANSs 802 15 2 is also addressing concerns of interference between Bluetooth and WLANs by developing a model to quantify their mutual interference Though strictly not operating modes defined by the current Bluetooth standard other task groups are investigating high rate and low rate WPANs Task Group 3 is defining a high rate MAC and PHY that will allow data rates of at least 20 Mbps for multimedia applications Task Group 4 is defining a low rate 200 Kb s and lower MAC and PHY for devices such as toys remote controls smart tags and badges Bluetooth and Windows XP Microsoft has announced support for Bluetooth in the next release of Windows XP as follows Microsoft is creating native support in the Microsoft Windows operating system for Bluetooth wireless technology This support is entirely new and is not based on existing software from other companies The specific delivery vehicles are to be determined Microsoft supports the Bluetooth technology as a wireless bus complementing USB and IEEE 1394 The goal for Microsoft software support is to Windows work with several types of devices that implement Bluetooth wireless technology such as
9. d to have very minor weaknesses the 128 bit version as used in Bluetooth is considered very strong Link layer security keys and more keys The Bluetooth Baseband link layer specification defines methods for both authentication and encryption that are subsequently utilized by higher layers These methods utilize a number of keys generated by a process that begins with three basic device entities a public 48 bit device address a random number generator and a secret PIN which is either built into the unit by the manufacturer or programmed by the user A typical PIN may consist of just four decimal digits However for applications requiring more security a PIN code up to 128 bits long can be entered The first of many keys is created the first time the Bluetooth device is installed on the host and is typically never changed This is referred to as the unit key Authentication When a Bluetooth session defined as the time interval for which the device is part of a piconet is initiated a series of additional keys is generated One of these keys referred to as the link key or authentication key is a one time 128 bit secret key that is used only during that session The process of authentication employs the encryption of a random number by each device to verify that each is sharing the same secret link key Encryption If encryption is required by the application an encryption key is further derived from the link key a ciphering of
10. fset number and a random number While the authentication key is always 128 bits the encryption key may be shorter to accommodate government restrictions on encryption which vary from country to country A new encryption key is generated each time the device enters encryption mode The authentication key however is used during the entire session Application layer security The Bluetooth General Access Profile defines three security modes Mode l is non secure Authentication is optional Mode 2 gives service level enforced security The service provided by the application decides whether or not authentication or encryption is required The Bluetooth SIG has published the Bluetooth Security Architecture white paper that defines a suitable architecture for implementing service level enforced security on Bluetooth devices The white paper splits devices into different categories and trust levels as well as suggesting three security levels for services The utilization of a database is suggested for enabling the user to authorize devices to utilize only particular services Because the implementation of security at this level does not affect interoperability this white paper is advisory only and is not part of the Bluetooth specification Mode 3 is link level enforced security Both devices must implement security procedures in order for a connection to be established In addition to the above modes a device can be configured to not resp
11. ion topology For example you might want your PDA to be able to communicate with any nearby printer but do you want your cell phone to send its audio to any nearby hands free headset Bluetooth must be automatically configurable If a Bluetooth product can t figure out whom it should and shouldn t talk to and how the marketplace will consider it too complicated to use Bluetooth must have quality of service QoS features to support voice No one wants cell phones with shorter battery life so the power required to support Bluetooth capability must be very low No one wants PDAs that are larger so adding Bluetooth capability to a device should not noticeably increase its size In order to replace cables Bluetooth cannot cost more than cables This means that Bluetooth technology cannot add more than 5 to the cost of the host device The phrase Wireless connections made easy which is printed on the cover page of the more than 1 500 pages of engineering specifications that define Bluetooth means easy for the user but hard for the engineers designing the products For the reasons outlined above Bluetooth presents some of the most demanding engineering challenges in the telecommunications arena and products are only just now beginning to appear on the market Bluetooth Product Certification The Bluetooth Special Interest Group SIG is a group of companies that cooperate to define Bluetooth standards and qualify Bluetoo
12. most intriguing is a car profile that describes the use of personal devices like pagers cell phones and laptops in an automotive environment Envisioned usages include the automatic adjustment of various settings in an automobile such as seat and mirror positions and radio tuning based on personal preferences stored in a Bluetooth device Another profile would link a cell phone car radio and text to speech software on a laptop to allow email to be spoken audibly over the car radio In addition to developing new profiles other working groups are developing extensions to enhance Bluetooth operations The radio working group is developing optional extensions to the current Bluetooth standard that include higher data rates and handoff capability to support roaming and the coexistence working group is collaborating with the IEEE 802 11 and 802 15 working groups to address interference concerns and ensure that Bluetooth can coexist in the same environment with WLANs The IEEE The Bluetooth and PAN concept has now been embraced by the IEEE which has trademarked WPAN in the work of the 802 15 group However the IEEE 802 15 group is confined to developing standards only for the lower two protocol layers of the OSI Reference Model Task Group 1 802 15 task groups are differentiated by number is working on the IEEE version of the Bluetooth standard which will define Media Access Control MAC and Physical PHY layers for fixed portable
13. n as well as upper layers of security Bluetooth uses the national standard AES algorithm for encryption and the general consensus is that the options for Bluetooth security are strong and robust The Promise of Bluetooth What it can do The promise of Bluetooth is extremely ambitious If Bluetooth lives up to its potential it will revolutionize the way people interact with information technology Originally conceived as a low power short range radio technology designed to replace cables for interconnecting devices such as printers keyboards and mice its perceived potential has evolved into much more It has given rise to the concept of the Personal Area Network PAN a technology of convenience where everything within the Personal Operating Space POS of an individual that is related to communicating information both voice and data is automatically tied into a seamless peer to peer network that self configures to make information easily accessible Scenarios for its usage are many and diverse and are only limited by the imaginations of the companies that create the products Compared with wireless LANs There is even talk of Bluetooth competing with WLANs but Bluetooth products work over shorter distances and are designed to solve different problems While the functionality of a WLAN device stands alone as a network component the functionality of a Bluetooth component requires a host The host can be any number of Bluetooth enabled
14. ond to paging so that other devices cannot connect to it Or it can be configured so that only devices that already know its address can connect to it Such numerous and complex levels of security are necessary to accommodate the large variety of different usage scenarios It falls on the designers of Bluetooth products to ensure that the complexity of Bluetooth is hidden from the user while still providing the user with necessary security options 10 Appendix Acronyms ACL Asynchronous Connection Less AES Advanced Encryption Standard ARQ Automatic Repeat Request FCC Federal Communications Commission FEC Forward Error Correction FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum IEEE Institute of Electrical amp Electronic Engineers ISM Industrial Scientific Medical LAN Local Area Network MAC Media Access Control Mbps Megabits per second NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology OSI Open Systems Interconnection PAN Personal Area Network PDA Personal Digital Assistant PHY Physical Layer PIN Personal Identification Number POS Personal Operating Space QoS Quality of Service SAFER Secure And Fast Encryption Routine SCO Synchronous Connection Oriented SDP Service Discovery Protocol SIG Special Interest Group USB Universal Serial Bus WLAN Wireless LAN References on the Web Bluetooth SIG http www bluetooth com Bluetooth specifications http www
15. ons as Object Push File Transfer and Synchronization see below Object Push This profile is used for the exchange of small objects such as electronic calling cards File Transfer This profile is used to transfer files between two Bluetooth devices Synchronization This profile is used to synchronize calendars and address information between devices New profiles not yet part of the standard include the following a Basic Printing Profile to facilitate printing of text emails short messages and formatted documents a Hands Free Profile to enable a mobile phone to be used with a hands free device in a car a Basic Imaging Profile enabling Bluetooth devices to negotiate the size and encoding of exchanged images and a Hardcopy Cable Replacement Profile used by devices such as laptops and desktop computers that utilize printer drivers Power Levels and Range Most Bluetooth devices dependent on batteries for power are designated as class 3 devices and are designed to operate at a power level of 0 dBm 1 mW which provides a range of up to 10 m Class 2 devices can utilize as much as 4 dBm 2 5 mW output power and class 1 devices can utilize up to 20 dBm 100 mW of output power Class 1 devices can have a range up to 100 m Bluetooth class 2 and 3 devices can optionally implement adaptive power control Required for class 1 devices this mechanism allows a Bluetooth radio to reduce power to the minimum level required to maintain its
16. person may choose to share the contents of an electronic slide presentation as well as datasheets business cards and other electronic collateral with the audience Bluetooth enables the automatic detection of any Bluetooth devices in the room enabling the transfer with the receiver s permission of all selected files This could also be done with a wireless LAN but all parties involved would have to configure their clients to use compatible network settings This is not required for Bluetooth Synchronization Bluetooth allows for data synchronization between devices For example a desktop computer that is Bluetooth enabled can wirelessly synchronize its contact list task information calendar etc to a user s phone PDA or notebook Several Bluetooth based synchronization models already exist for both Pocket PC and Palm based PDAs Printing HP is making printers and notebooks with embedded Bluetooth technology Bluetooth enabled devices can automatically detect Bluetooth enabled printers in their area and wirelessly send documents to the printer without going through lengthy network and printing setup processes Mobile users who frequently visit remote offices will find Bluetooth printing a significant improvement in convenience to their current experience An engineering challenge The demands of creating Bluetooth enabled products are very challenging Consider the following Bluetooth must have a very flexible applicat
17. th products A product that has passed certain testing criteria can be stamped with the Bluetooth logo assuring a certain level of interoperability Bluetooth Basics How it works Network Topology Any Bluetooth device can be a master or a slave depending on the application scenario Bluetooth employs frequency hopping spread spectrum FHSS to communicate So in order for multiple Bluetooth devices to communicate they must all synchronize to the same hopping sequence The master sets the hopping sequence and the slaves synchronize to the Master A piconet is formed by a master and up to seven active slaves The slaves in a piconet only communicate with the master A scatter net can be formed by linking two or more piconets When a device is present in more than one piconet it must time share and synchronize to the master of the piconet with which it is currently communicating While the topology and hierarchical structure of WLAN networks are relatively simple Bluetooth networks are far more diverse and dynamic They are constantly being formed modified and dissolved as Bluetooth devices move in and out of range of one another And because different Bluetooth devices can represent many different usage profiles there are many different ways in which Bluetooth devices can interact Service Discovery The concept of service discovery is utilized to determine what kind of Bluetooth devices are present and what services they desire
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