This glossary includes acronyms and terms which may be encountered in the Bluetooth® technology, and serves as a quick look-up guide.
P Poll bit: bit 5 in the RFCOMM command field for frames carrying a command.
P/F Poll/Final: bit 5 in the RFCOMM command field, which identifies whether a message needs a response.
PABX Private Automatic Branch Exchange: a local telephone exchange.
Packet Format Each packet consists of 3 entities, the access code,
the packet header and the payload. Their are a number of different packet
types.
Packet Header The header contains link control info and consists
of 6 fields: AM_ADDR: active member address, TYPE : type code , FLOW : flow
control, ARQN: acknowledge indication, SEQN : sequence number & HEC
: header error check. The total size of the header is 54-bits.
Packet Switched A network that routes data packets based on an address
contained in the data packet is said to be a packet switched network. Multiple
data packets can share the same network resources.
Packet type 13 different packet types are defined for the
baseband layer of the Bluetooth® system. All higher layers use these packets
to compose higher level PDU's. The packets are ID, NULL, POLL, FHS , DM1
; these packets are defined for both SCO and ACL links. DH1, AUX1, DM3,
DH3, DM5, DH5 are defined for ACL links only. HV1, HV2, HV3 , DV are defined
for SCO links only.
Paging To transmit the ID of another device in order to establish
connection with it.
Page Scan To listen for its own ID. If the page scanning device receives its own ID, then it connects to the device which sent it.
Page (hopping) sequence This is a sequence of 32 (16 for
the 23MHz system) frequencies, Each frequency is calculated using the unit
being paged's BD_ADDR (this was obtained earlier, such as an inquiry operation
). The phase in the sequence is derived from an estimate of the unit being
paged's clock. Although it should be able to theoretically calculate the
predicated hop frequency of the unit being paged, and page it straight away,
inevitably clock drift will occur. 32 frequencies are used to handle this,
using the calculated main centre frequency and 31 other frequencies, these
have an of offset of +/- 16. A new centre frequency is calculated every
1.28s. To handle all 32 frequencies , the page hopping sequence switches
between 2 paging trains , of 16 frequencies each. See also Frequency sequence.
Page (hopping) response sequence The page response sequence
covers 32 (16 for the 23MHz) unique response frequencies that all are in
an one-to-one correspondence to the current page hopping sequence. The master
and slave use different rules to obtain the same sequence. See also Frequency
sequence.
Page (Master) Response State Step 1: When the source has received
a reply to it's original page
message, it will enter this state. It will then send an FHS packet to
the destination device. It will send this using the page hopping sequence.
Step 2: When the source has received the second reply (Page Slave Response
State: Step2), it knows that the destination device has received the FHS
packet the source sent in Step 1. The source is now the master of the destination
(the slave).
Page (Slave) Response State Step 1: Once a destination device
has received its own DAC from the source (in the ID packet), it will
enter this state. It will send a response message (its DAC again) to
the source .It will send this using the page response hopping sequence.
Step 2:Once the destination device has received the FHS packet from the source ,(Page Master Response State: Step 1), the destination will send a reply to the source (an ID packet containing the destination DAC).
Step 3: The destination will switch to the source's channel params. The
destination is now the slave of the source (the master).
Page Scan State A mode where a device listens for page trains containing
its own device access code (DAC). When a device wishes to receive page packets
it enters the page scan mode. The scanning will follow the page hopping
sequence. If a device receives a page packet, it will enter the slave response
state.
Page State A mode that a device enters when searching for other devices.
The device sends out a page packet (ID packet), using the page hopping sequence,
to notify other devices that it wants to know about the other devices and/or
their services.
Paging Procedure With the paging procedure, an actual connection
can be established. The paging procedure typically follows the inquiry procedure.
Only the Bluetooth device address is required to set up a connection. Knowledge
about the clock (clock estimate) will accelerate the setup procedure. A
unit that establishes a connection will carry out a page procedure and will
automatically be the master of the connection. The procedure occurs as follows:
1: A device (the source) pages another device (the destination ) : Page
state
2: The destination receives the page : Page Scan state
3: The destination sends a reply to the source. : Slave Response state:
Step 1
4: The source sends an FHS packet to the destination : Master Response state:
Step 1
5: The destination sends it's second reply to the source. : Slave Response
state : Step 2
6: The destination & source then switch to the source channel parameters
:Master Response state: Step 2 & Slave Response state: Step 3
pairable mode A device that accepts pairing, is said to be in pairable
mode. The opposite of pairing mode is non-pairable mode.
pairing The creation and exchange of a link key between two devices.
The devices use the link key for future authentication when exchanging information.
PAN Personal Area Network: the small, ad-hoc networks facilitated
by Bluetooth technology, which join together a group of personal devices.
park mode In the PARK mode, a device is still synchronised to the
piconet but does not participate in the traffic. Parked devices have given
up their MAC (AM_ADDR) address and occasional listen to the traffic of the
master to re-synchronise and check on broadcast messages. It has the lowest
duty cycle (power efficiency) of all 3 power saving modes (sniff, hold &
park).
passkey Another name for PIN (Personal Identification Number).
payload format Each packet payload can have one of 2 possible fields,
the data field (ACL) or the voice field (SCO). The different packets, depending
on whether they are ACL or SCO packets can only have one of these fields.
The one exception is the DV packets which have both. The voice field has
a fixed length field, with no payload header. The data field consists of
3 segments: a payload header, a payload body and a CRC code (with the exception
of the AUX1 packet).
PB flag Packet Boundary flag: identifies start and continuing
L2CAP data in HCI packets.
PCB Printed Circuit Board.
PCM Pulse Coded Modulation.
PDA Personal Digital Assistant: a small hand-held computing device.
PDU Protocol Data Unit. (i.e., a message.)
PHY PHYsical layer: the lowest layer of the OSI seven-layer model.
Physical link A synchronised Bluetooth baseband-compliant RF hopping
sequence. It is a baseband level association between two devices established
using paging. A physical link comprises a sequence of transmission slots
on a physical channel alternating between master and slave transmission
slots.
Piconet A collection of devices connected via Bluetooth technology
in an ad hoc fashion. A piconet starts with two connected devices, such
as a portable PC and cellular phone, and may grow to eight connected devices.
All Bluetooth devices are peer units and have identical implementations.
However, when establishing a piconet, one unit will act as a master and
the other(s) as slave(s) for the duration of the piconet connection. All
devices have the same physical channel defined by the master device parameters
(clock and BD_ADDR).
PICS Protocol Implementation Conformance Statement.
PIFA Planar Inverted F Antenna.
PIN Personal Identification Number. The Bluetooth PIN is used to
authenticate two devices that have not previously exchanged link key. By
exchanging a PIN, the devices create a trusted relationship. The PIN is
used in the pairing procedure to generate the initial link that is used
for further identification.
PIN(BB) The PIN used on the baseband level. The PIN(BB) is used by
the baseband mechanism for calculating the initialization key during the
pairing procedure. (128 bits)
PIN(UI) The PIN used on the user interface level. The PIN(UI) is
the character representation of the PIN that is entered on the UI level.
PIXIT Protocol Extra Information for Testing.
PM_ADDR Parked Member Address. It is a 8-bit member (master-local)
address that separates the parked slaves.The PM_ADDR is only valid as long
as the slave is parked.
PN Port Negotiation: RFCOMM command used to configure a data
link connection.
Pnd A suffix used on signals from lower layers to higher layers when responding to higher layer requests. Pnd stands for ‘Pending’ and indicates that the lower layer has more processing to do.
PnP Plug and Play: Plug and Play matches up physical devices with software by automatically telling device drivers where to find hardware such as Bluetooth cards. Plug and Play allocates I/O addresses, IRQs, DMA channels, and memory regions.
POLL packet Similar to the NULL packet, except it requires a confirmation
from the destination. Upon reception of a POLL packet the slave must respond
with a packet. See also Bluetooth packet types
PPM Parts Per Million.
PPM Pulse Position Modulation.
PPP Point to Point Protocol.
PRBS Pseudorandom Bit Sequence.
Profile A description of the operation of a device or application.
PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network. The general phone network.
Q
Q.931 ITU-T standard for signaling system used for call control.
QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation: a modulation technique which uses amplitude as well as phase for encoding data for higher data rates.
QoS Quality of Service.
QPSK Quadrature Phase Shift Keying: a modulation scheme which uses four phase values to encode two data bits per modulated signal.
Qualification A process of testing to ensure that a device meets the Bluetooth specification.
R
Radio The Radio layer of the Bluetooth system, the lowest defined
layer. It details the requirements needed for a Bluetooth device transceiver
to operate in the Bluetooth radio band . 2 different ranges have been defined
for the radio layer, a 23MHz range and a 79MHz range , both are in the 2.4GHz
ISM band. The 23MHz range is only used in certain countries (such as Spain,
France) , that have national limitations on the amount of frequencies available.
Different hop systems are used for both.
RAND RANDom number.
RemDev Remote Device: the device at the far end of a Bluetooth link.
Req A suffix used on signals passing commands from higher layers to lower layers. Req is an abbreviation for Request.
RF Radio Frequency.
RLS Remote Line Status.
RFCOMM Serial Cable Emulation Protocol based on ETSI TS 07.10.
RPN Remote Port Negotiation.
RS-232 A serial communications interface. Serial communication standards
are defined by the Electronic Industries Association (EIA).
RSSI Received Signal Strength Indication. An optional part of
the radio layer, used to determine the link quality and thus whether
to increase broadcast power.
Rsp A suffix used on signals from higher layers responding to indications from lower layers. Rsp is an abbreviation for Response.
RTOS Real-Time Operating System.
RTS Ready To Send.
RTX Timer The Response Timeout eXpired timer used in the L2CAP layer
to terminate the channel when the remote endpoint is unresponsive to signalling
requests. It is started when a signalling request is sent to a remote device.
RX Receiver or recieve.
S
S Short for Slave. See slave device.
SABM Set Asynchronous UnBalanced Mode.
SAP Service Access Points.
SAPI Service Access Point Identifier.
SAR Segmentation and Re-assembly. A sub-layer of the L2CAP layer.
SAR Specific Absorption Rate.
Scatternet Multiple independent and non-synchronised piconets form
a scatternet.
SCO Synchronous Connection Oriented link. One of the 2 Bluetooth
data link types defined.A synchronous (circuit-switched) connection for
reserved bandwidth communications, e.g. voice, between two devices created
on the LMP level by reserving slots periodically on a physical channel.
This type of link is used primarily to transport SCO packets (voice data).
SCO packets do not include a CRC and are never retransmitted. It primarily
supports time-bounded information like voice. (Master to single slave.)
SCO links can be established only after an ACL link has first been established.
See also ACL.
SCID Source Channel Identifier. Used in the L2CAP layer to indicate
the channel endpoint on the device sending the L2CAP message. It is a device
local name only. See also DCID.
SDAP Service Discovery Application Profile.
SDDB Service Discovery Database.
SDP Service Discovery Protocol. It is a Bluetooth defined protocol
for provided for or available through a Bluetooth device. Essentially provides
a means for applications to discover which services are available and to
determine the characteristics of those available services.
SDP client The SDP client may retrieve information from a service
record maintained by the SDP server by issuing an SDP request.
SDP server The SDP server maintains a list of service records that
describe the characteristics of services associated with the server.
SDP Session The exchange of information between an SDP client and
an SDP server. The exchange of information is referred to as an SDP transaction.
SDP Transaction The exchange of an SDP request from an SDP client
to an SDP server, and the corresponding SDP response from an SDP server
back to the SDP client.
Security Mode 1 A device will not initiate any security. A non-secure
mode.
Security Mode 2 A device does not initiate security procedures before
channel establishment on L2CAP level This mode allows different and flexible
access policies for applications, especially running applications with different
security requirements in parallel. A service level enforced security mode.
Security Mode 3 A device initiates security procedures before the
link setup on LMP level is completed. A link level enforced security mode.
SEQN Sequential Numbering scheme. It provides a sequential numbering
scheme to order the data packet stream.
Serial Interface An interface to provide serial communications. service
This term refers to a service that one device provides for others. Examples
are printers, PIM. synchronization servers, modems (or modem emulators).
Service (SDP layer) A service is any entity that can provide
information, perform an action, or control a resource on behalf of another
entity. A service may be implemented as software, hardware, or a combination
of hardware and software.
Service Advisor The portion of the UI that handles BT services for
the UI.
Service Attribute Each service attribute describes a single characteristic
of a service.
Service Discovery See SDP.
Service Class Each service is an instance of a service class. The
service class definition provides the definitions of all attributes contained
in service records that represent the instances of that class.
Service Layer The group of protocols that provides services to the
application layer and the driver layer in a Bluetooth device.
Service Record A service record contains all of the information about
a service that is maintained by an SDP server.
Service Record Database A database that contains the service
discovery-related information.
Service Record Handle A service record handle is a 32-bit number
that uniquely identifies each
service record within an SDP server.
SIG Special Interest Group. The Bluetooth SIG is located at www.bluetooth.com.
slave device A device in a piconet that is not the master.There can
be many slaves per piconet.
SMS Short Message Service.
sniff mode Devices synchronised to a piconet can enter power-saving
modes in which device activity is lowered. In the SNIFF mode, a slave
device listens to the piconet at reduced rate, thus reducing its duty
cycle. The SNIFF interval is programmable and depends on the application.
It has the highest duty cycle (least power efficient ) of all 3 power
saving modes (sniff, hold & park).
SOC System On Chip: a complete system in a single ASIC.
Source The Bluetooth device initiating an action to another Bluetooth
device. The device receiving the action is called the destination. The
source is typically part of an established link, though not always (
such as in inquiry / page procedures).
SPP Serial Port Profile.
SR Scan Repetition. A mode used in the baseband layer to determine
how long the device will continue to scan for a page response.
SSI Signal Strength Indication
SUT System Under Test.
SW SoftWare
SWAP Shared Wireless Access Protocol.
TA Terminal adapter.
Tb Interval between beacon trains.
TBD To Be Determined, Defined, Decided.
TC Test Control
TCI Test Control Interface
TCP/IP Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
TCS Telephone Control protocol Specification.
TCS-AT A set of AT-commands by which a mobile phone and modem can
be controlled in the multiple usage models. In BT, AT-commands are based
on ITU-T recommendation v.250 and ETS 300 916(GSM 07.07). In addition, the
commands used for fax services are specified by the implementation. TCS-AT
will also be used for dial-up networking and headset profiles.
TCS Binary Bluetooth Telephony Control protocol Specification using
bit-Oriented protocol. It is also referred to as the TCS-BIN system. TCS-BIN
will be used for cordless telephony profiles.
TDD Time Division Duplex
TDM Time Division Multiplexing
TGAP Timer used in the General Access Profile (GAP).
TID Terminal IDentifier
time slot A single time slot in the Bluetooth system lasts 625us.
It can be though of as the time it takes to send one packet from one
Bluetooth device to another.
TLS Transport Layer Security.
Trusted Device A device which is paired (shares a link key) with
the local device, and also explicitly marked as trusted in a security database.
TTP Tiny Transport Protocol between OBEX and UDP [TBD].
TX Transmit.
TXD Transmit Data: used on RS232 and UART links.