Palm OS Support for Bluetooth

1
Palm OS Support for Bluetooth

• Chicago Palm Programmers Group Meeting
• February 27, 2001

Karen Jeffrey DePaul University and Forall
Systems kjeffrey_at_forallsystems.com
2
Sources for talk

• Palm Source Presentation by Peter Easton205
  Bluetooth and Palm OShttp//www.palmsource.com/s
  lides/Track20200/205.pdf
• Palms Bluetooth Wireless Technology
  Pagehttp//www.palmos.com/dev/tech/bluetooth/
• Palms Bluetooth Whitepaperhttp//www.palmos.com/
  dev/tech/bluetooth/palm_bluetooth_whitepaper.pdf
• Palm Source Bluetooth Lab
• AnywhereYouGo.comhttp//www.anywhereyougo.com/

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Support for Bluetooth

• What is Bluetooth?
• Palms Bluetooth Hardware
• Palm OS Support for Bluetooth
• Palms Bluetooth API

4
What is Bluetooth?

• Open wireless communication standard
• www.bluetooth.com
• Focused on mobile wireless links
• Small, low cost, low power consumption
• Allows small ad hoc wireless networks
• Piconet
• 1 master and up to 7 active slaves
• Scatternet
• Communication between Piconets

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What is Bluetooth?

• 2.4 GHz Open band
• Globally available
• Other devices include microwave ovens, cordless
  phones
• Frequency hopping and Time Division Multiplexing
• 10 100 meter range
• Up to 8 active devices can be in the same piconet
• 1 Mbps gross rate
• Simultaneous voice/data capable
• 432 Kbps (full duplex), 721/56 Kbps asymmetric
• Or 3 simultaneous voice full duplex calls
• Or a combination of voice and data

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Related Standards

• IrDA Infrared Data Association
• Infrared beaming
• Short distances (1 meters)
• Point-to-point, line-of-sight communication
• 802.11B and HomeRF
• Higher bandwidth
• Dont support voice
• More expensive
• Require more power

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General Bluetooth Status(as of Unplugfest in
November 2000)

• 1.0B specification had problems
• 1.1 specification fixes most of the problems
  (published October 2000)
• Most vendors have point-to-point working
• Some vendors have point-to-multipoint working
• Scatternet will not happen in this generation of
  radio

8
Palms Bluetooth Hardware

• Palms Bluetooth Initiative started by 3Comm over
  2 years ago
• Bluetooth will at first be an add-on and when
  prices drop will be integrated
• Power
• 10 meter range between Palms
• 30 meter range to LAN access point
• Uses serial port (limited to 115,200 bps)

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Bluetooth System Components

• Radio unit
• actual radio transceiver which enables the
  wireless link between Bluetooth devices
• Baseband unit
• hardware, consisting of flash memory and a CPU,
  which interfaces with the radio unit and the host
  device electronics at the hardware level
• Software stack
• driver software or firmware which enables the
  application level software to interface with the
  baseband unit
• Application software
• implements the user interface and overall
  functionality of the Bluetooth device

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Hardware Operation

• The Palm Vx powers the Bluetooth module
• Bluetooth module monitors Tx and RTS pin
• Goes into standby mode when lines not powered
• Bluetooth module asserts HotSync interrupt to
  wakeup Palm
• HotSync notification sent to Bluetooth library

13
Palms Product Roadmap

• Hardcase for Palm Vx
• Seed some developers in Jan/Feb 2001
• Software and hardware is alpha
• General developer availability Q2 2001
• Hardcase for other Palms?
• Bluetooth on SD card?
• Bluetooth integrated into Palms
• Perhaps 2002 or 2003
• Licensees will also provide support

14
Palm OS Bluetooth Support Goals

• Consistent UI and API
• Conform to version 1.1 of Bluetooth specification
• Emulate serial ports via Virtual Serial Port
  Driver
• Allow desktop HotSync with selected Bluetooth PC
  cards
• Allow HotSync with IP using cell phones LAN
  access points
• Maintain compatibility with Wireless Internet Kit

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Bluetooth Connections

• Voice or data connections
• Asynchronous Connectionless (ACL)
• Used for data
• Supported by Palm OS
• Synchronous Connection-Oriented (SCO)
• Used for voice
• Not supported by Palm OS this release
• Paired or temporary Connections
• Temporary connections have to be discovered
• Average time to connect 2.56 seconds
• Paired connections are more secure and faster
• Average time to connect .64 seconds

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Network Topology

• Piconet
• 1 master and up to 7 active slaves
• Supported by Palm OS
• Scatternet
• Communication between Piconets
• Not supported by Palm OS

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Device Discovery

• General
• Used by devices that need to discover devices
  that are made discoverable continuously or for no
  specific condition with General Inquiry Access
  Code.
• Supported by Palm OS
• Limited
• Allows discovery of devices that are set to scan
  for inquiry messages with the Limited Inquiry
  Access Code.
• Not supported by Palm OS

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Bluetooth Security(Palm OS will support modes
12)

• non-secure
• device does not initiate any kind of security
  procedure
• service-level security
• more flexibility in application access policies
  is allowed
• link level security
• device sets up security procedures before the
  link set-up is completed.
• Link level security provides applications with
  knowledge of "who" is at the other end of the
  link and provide authentication, authorization,
  and encryption services

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Bluetooth API

• General Management
• ME Management Entity Functions
• For discovery, ACL links and global Bluetooth
  settings
• SDP Service Discovery Protocol
• For advertising and discovering services to/from
  remote devices
• Sockets
• RFCOMM Cable Replacement Protocol
• Serial line emulation protocol
• L2CAP Logical Link Control and Adaption
  Protocol
• Allows higher level protocols and applications to
  transmit and receive data packets.

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Typical Bluetooth Operation

• Discover single or multiple devices
• Create an ACL (data) link to the device
• Create a socket
• SDP Service Discovery Protocol
• RFCOMM Used by Virtual Serial Driver
• L2CAP Data Connection
• Pass Data
• Close Socket, close ACL link

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Palm OS Bluetooth Virtual Serial Port

• Opens background thread for the Bluetooth stack
• Supports only one active serial channel at a time
• Uses a blocking open call
• Opened explicitly as client or server
• Used as a client by PPP, HotSync, Telephony
• As a server, advertises list of services available

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Expected Release Dates for Palm OS Bluetooth
Support

• Not in OS 4.0
• However OS 4.0 will be Bluetooth-aware
• Bluetooth libraries will be release before OS
  5.0
• Will be OS 4.0 with Bluetooth
• Runs on POSE
• Around 200K