Bluetooth Revealed: The Insider's Guide to an Open Specification for Global Wireless Communications (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Brent A. Miller (Author), Chatschik Bisdikian (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130672378 | ISBN-13: 978-0130672377 | Publication Date: November 20, 2001 | Edition: 2

This book offers an in-depth, insider's view of the new Bluetooth 1.1 standard and its major interoperability improvements -- crucial information and insight professionals need to start implementing Bluetooth solutions now. Written by two key contributors to the specification, it presents Bluetooth in unprecedented depth: its goals, scope, structure, interrelationships, and applications. This new edition contains all-new chapters on the Bluetooth qualification process, and on Bluetooth's relationship with other wireless standards, including 802.11 and 802.15. They introduce Bluetooth's goals, key concepts, and the design challenges that have shaped it. They cover the entire Bluetooth protocol stack, and present detailed coverage of Bluetooth profiles, including new profiles introduced after the release of Bluetooth 1.0.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Bluetooth specification, which describes a way for electronic devices to communicate with one another at close range by way of radio signals, has great potential. The open standard promises to make mobile telephones, personal organizers, and digital cameras wireless and far easier to use. In Bluetooth Revealed, a couple of experts who helped hammer out the Bluetooth specification (version 1.0B, specifically) take a shot at elaborating upon the contents of the standards documents. They also share some of their imaginings about how Bluetooth connectivity might be put to use. The result of their efforts is a surprisingly readable book that should fit the needs of hardware and software developers who plan to support the Bluetooth platform.

After some discussion of wireless devices and the generalities of the Bluetooth specification, the authors approach their subject in progressively greater detail, defining terms and referring to conceptual diagrams as they go. Emphasizing protocols that are unique to Bluetooth communication (such as RFCOMM, which allows applications to treat a radio link just like a hard-wired serial port), the authors show exactly how Bluetooth devices arrange themselves into wireless networks. Then, they explain how these networked devices exchange commands, files, and multimedia streams. They give fair hearing to the specification's shortcomings, too; noting, for example, that it's good for sharing voice signals among devices, but not so good for sharing high-quality music signals.

The authors of Bluetooth Revealed would be the first to concede that the Bluetooth standard is evolving, and certainly will change as more manufacturers adopt and supplement it. Regardless, this book is a valuable statement of the Bluetooth vision, straight from a couple of its creators. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Bluetooth wireless networking specification (version 1.0B) and its component parts, including the radio, baseband, link-controller, and link-manager layers. Special coverage goes to the Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP), the Host Controller Interface (HCI), RFCOMM serial ports, and the Service Discovery Protocol. Bluetooth futures appear here, too. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Preface

The convergence of computing and communications has been predicted for many years. Today's explosion of a myriad of new types of personal computing and communications devices—notebook computers, personal digital assistants, "smart" phones, two-way pagers, digital cameras and so on—has resulted in new ways for people to communicate and gain access to data. The advent of this pervasive computing, especially via wireless communications, enables these devices to be used in new settings: not only can people make voice calls from their automobile using a mobile phone, but also they can access the World Wide Web from a wireless notebook or handheld computer while at the airport or a shopping mall. We are rapidly moving toward a world where computing and communications become ubiquitous—not only at work but also in the home, in public places and in personal surroundings.

Until recently, enabling all of these devices to communicate with each other has been cumbersome, often involving the use of special cables to connect the devices together along with device-specific software that might use proprietary protocols. To exchange information among all of her personal devices, a person might need to carry as many cables as devices and still lack assurance that all the devices could interconnect. The inability to share information among devices or the difficulty in doing so limits their usefulness.

The Bluetooth technology enables devices to communicate seamlessly without wires. While Bluetooth wireless communication is first and foremost a means for cable replacement, it also enables many new applications—the use of a single mobile telephone as a cellular phone, cordless phone or intercom and the use of a notebook computer as a speakerphone, just to name two. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) was formed in early 1998 by Ericsson, Intel, IBM, Nokia and Toshiba to develop an open specification for globally available short-range wireless radio frequency communications. The SIG has published a specification for the Bluetooth radio and baseband along with a set of communication protocols comprising a software stack used with the Bluetooth radio hardware. The Bluetooth radio module design is optimized for very low power consumption, low cost, small footprint and use anywhere in the world. In addition to the core specification, the SIG has also published Bluetooth profiles that describe how to use the software protocols such that interoperability among all kinds of devices can be achieved, regardless of who manufactures these devices. Version 1.0 of the specification was published in July 1999. Today the Bluetooth Special Interest Group consists of nine promoter companies (joining the five founding companies noted above in the SIG's core group are 3Com, Lucent, Microsoft and Motorola) and well over 1,800 adopter companies from around the world, representing a diverse set of industries.

The specification and profiles continue to evolve as the SIG develops new ways to use the Bluetooth technology. The first products with Bluetooth wireless communications arrived in 2000 led by development tools, mobile telephones, audio headsets, notebook computers, handheld computers and network access points.

A great deal of interest, talent and energy has marshaled around this exciting new technology. Until now most of the information available about Bluetooth wireless communications has been from the SIG's official web site (bluetooth) or from brief press articles or newsletters. This book aims to be at once authoritative and accessible. Besides discussing background, history and potential future developments, Bluetooth Revealed: The Insider's Guide to an Open Specification for Global Wireless Communications delivers practical explanations of the specification by people who helped to develop it. It is a broad discussion of the topic, containing information that should be of value to industry practitioners, professionals, students and any others who are interested in this topic. No matter what your particular interest is, Bluetooth Revealed is intended to give you the information you need to become a "Bluetooth Insider." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 2 edition (November 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130672378
• ISBN-13: 978-0130672377
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,948,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book will become the Bluetooth technology primer!, October 5, 2000

By 

Mac Graham (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bluetooth Revealed: The Insider's Guide to an Open Specification for Global Wireless Communications (Paperback)

I found this to be a expectedly well-written book for one covering a technical subject so well. It is written from the perspective of insider-engineers who were hands on in the development of the Bluetooth wireless specification. I found the background, development history and methodology particularly facinating. The technical components of the specification are laid out in a logical sequence and the book is written in an easy to understand manner and with the intention that the reader understands the technology. These are obviously not guys off in some Ivory Tower, but rather they are highly skilled engineers who are willing and able to speak with those of us who are not so deep into the technology. Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For beginner, 4 stars. For advanced reader, 3 stars, October 22, 2000

By 

Yah Itoh - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bluetooth Revealed: The Insider's Guide to an Open Specification for Global Wireless Communications (Paperback)

For Beginner -- This book basically is the shorter and with more understandable english version of the confusing and lengthy spec. For a beginner, try to read the spec is not very easy. Tis book provides a good starting point. However, this book doesn't tell the whole story, such like the relation between L2CAP channel and baseband channel. The initiator of the L2CAP channel must be the Master of the piconet?? Such confuing concept is not well explained in this book for a beginner and when the beginner starting picking up, he should start finding many such ill-explained (or not explained) concept in this book.

For advanced reader -- This book tells something but doesn't answer the common confusion in the spec. One example is that on p.134, it said the L2CAP_Connection_Request is for a connection-oriented channel and a PSM value is needed. However, on p.130, the connection-oriented PDU, there is no PSM value and PSM only exists in connectionless channel as shown on p.129. Maybe the answer is somewhere in the book but I haven't found it. So in short this book resolves some confusions in the spec but it also brings up more confusions.

Overall, I think this book is worthy of owning and I strongly recommend it to everybody who who wants to study Bluetooth technology. However I don't think it deserves 5 stars as other people have given to it. It is just the author could have done better and I am hoping that they can make more explainations and solve many people's confusions (go to www.bluetooth.com forum and www.egroups.com bluetooth discussion, it is not difficult to find the common confusions that peopel have) instead of rewriting the spec with better english.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable tool for wireless application developers!, October 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Bluetooth Revealed: The Insider's Guide to an Open Specification for Global Wireless Communications (Paperback)

Well written with valuable content for wireless application developers that need to develop Bluetooth solutions. This book provides information complimentary to the actual Bluetooth specifications and allows one to really use the specifications to develop product. This book is good example of why software developers often purchase books from the authors of a given technology as it provides insight into the specification and technology that those not directly involved could! I highly recommend this book to others that are in need of Bluetooth information to build actual Bluetooth products and applications.