[Bluetooth] Nomenclature

Nomenclature

 

Active Peripheral Broadcast(APB)	The logical transport that is used to transport L2CAP user traffic and some kinds of LMP traffic to all active devices in the piconet over the BR/EDR Controller. See Section 3.5.4.4
Ad Hoc Network	A network typically created in a spontaneous manner. An ad hoc network requires no formal infrastructure and is limited in temporal and spatial extent.
Advertiser	A Bluetooth Low Energy device that broadcasts advertising packets during advertising events on advertising channels
Advertising	event A series of between one and three advertising packets on different advertising physical channels sent by an advertiser.
Advertising Packet	A packet containing an advertising PDU. See [Vol 6] Part B, Section 2.3.1
Angle of Arrival (AoA)	Angle of Arrival is the relative direction at which a propagating RF wave that was transmitted by a single antenna is incident on an antenna array.
Angle of Departure (AoD)	Angle of Departure is the relative direction from which a propagating RF wave that was transmitted using an antenna array is incident on another antenna.
BD_ADDR	The Bluetooth Device Address, BD_ADDR, is used to identify a Bluetooth device.
Bluetooth	Bluetooth is a wireless communication link, operating in the unlicensed ISM band at 2.4 GHz using a frequency hopping transceiver. It allows real-time AV and data communications between Bluetooth Hosts. The link protocol is based on time slots.
Bluetooth Baseband	The part of the Bluetooth system that specifies or implements the medium access and physical layer procedures to support the exchange of real-time voice, data information streams, and ad hoc networking between Bluetooth Devices.
Bluetooth Clock	A 28 bit clock internal to a BR/EDR Controller sub-system that ticks every 312.5 µs. The value of this clock defines the slot numbering and timing in the various physical channels.
Bluetooth Controller	A generic term referring to a Controller.
Bluetooth Device	A device that is capable of short-range wireless communications using the Bluetooth system.
Bluetooth Device Address	A 48 bit address used to identify each Bluetooth device.
BR/EDR	Bluetooth basic rate (BR) and enhanced data rate (EDR).
BR/EDR Controller	A term referring to the Bluetooth Radio, Baseband, Link Manager, and HCI layers.
BR/EDR Piconet Physical Channel	A Channel that is divided into time slots in which each slot is related to an RF hop frequency. Consecutive hops normally correspond to different RF hop frequencies and occur at a standard hop rate of 1600 hops per second. These consecutive hops follow a pseudo-random hopping sequence, hopping through a 79 RF channel set, or optionally fewer channels when Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) is in use.
BR/EDR/LE	Bluetooth basic rate (BR), enhanced data rate (EDR) and low energy (LE).
C-plane	Control plane
Channel	Either a physical channel or an L2CAP channel, depending on the context.
Channel Sounding	A Bluetooth Low Energy feature that measures and distributes information that can be used to approximate distances between devices.
Channel Sounding event	A group of Channel Sounding subevents that are anchored from a common LE connection event.
Channel Sounding procedure	A group of Channel Sounding events that are sequenced serially for the purpose of gathering information useful for estimating the distance between two devices.
Channel Sounding step	In Channel Sounding, an individual exchange between two devices.
Channel Sounding subevent	A group of Channel Sounding steps that are associated with a specific coherent timing.
Connect (to service)	The establishment of a connection to a service. If not already done, this also includes establishment of a physical link, logical transport, logical link and L2CAP channel.
Connectable device	A BR/EDR device in range that periodically listens on its page scan physical channel and will respond to a page on that channel. An LE device that is advertising using a connectable advertising event.
Connected devices	Two BR/EDR devices and with a physical link between them.
Connecting	A phase in the communication between devices when a connection between the devices is being established. (Connecting phase follows after the link establishment phase is completed.)
Connection	A connection between two peer applications or higher layer protocols mapped onto an L2CAP channel.
Connection establishment	A procedure for creating a connection mapped onto a channel.
Connection event	A series of one or more pairs of interleaving data packets sent between a Central and a Peripheral on the same physical channel.
Connectionless Peripheral Broadcast (CPB)	A feature that enables a Central to broadcast information to an unlimited number of Peripherals.
Connectionless Peripheral Broadcast Receiver	A Bluetooth device that receives broadcast information from a Connectionless Peripheral Broadcast Transmitter. The device is a Peripheral of the piconet.
Connectionless Peripheral Broadcast Transmitter	A Bluetooth device that sends Connectionless Peripheral Broadcast messages for reception by one or more Connectionless Peripheral Broadcast receivers. The device is the Central of the piconet.
Controller	A collective term referring to all of the layers below HCI.
Coverage area	The area where two Bluetooth devices can exchange messages with acceptable quality and performance.
Creation of a secure connection	A procedure of establishing a connection, including authentication and encryption.
Creation of a trusted relationship	A procedure where the remote device is marked as a trusted device. This includes storing a common link key for future authentication, or pairing, when a link key is not available.
Device discovery	A procedure for retrieving the Bluetooth Device Address, clock, and Class of Device from discoverable devices.
Discoverable device	A BR/EDR device in range that periodically listens on an inquiry scan physical channel and will respond to an inquiry on that channel. An LE device in range that is advertising with a connectable or scannable advertising event with a discoverable flag set in the advertising data. This device is in the discoverable mode.
Discoverable Mode	A Bluetooth device that is performing inquiry scans in BR/EDR or advertising with a discoverable or connectable advertising event with a discoverable flag set in LE.
Discovery procedure	A Bluetooth device that is carrying out the inquiry procedure in BR/EDR or scanning for advertisers using a discoverable or connectable advertising event with a discoverable flag set in LE.
HCI	The Host Controller interface (HCI) provides a command interface to the baseband Controller and link manager and access to hardware status and control registers. This interface provides a uniform method of accessing the Bluetooth baseband capabilities.
Host	A logical entity defined as all of the layers below the non-core profiles and above the Host Controller interface (HCI); i.e., the layers specified in Volume 3. A Bluetooth Host attached to a Bluetooth Controller may communicate with other Bluetooth Hosts attached to their Controllers as well.
Initiator	From the perspective of an advertising bearer, a Bluetooth Low Energy device that listens on advertising physical channels for connectable advertising events to form connections. From the perspective of Channel Sounding, the device that transmits first within a Channel Sounding step.
Inquiring device	A BR/EDR device that is carrying out the inquiry procedure. This device is performing the discovery procedure.
Inquiry	A procedure where a Bluetooth device transmits inquiry messages and listens for responses in order to discover the other Bluetooth devices that are within the coverage area.
Inquiry scan	A procedure where a Bluetooth device listens for inquiry messages received on its inquiry scan physical channel.
Interoperability	The ability of two or more devices to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged.
Isochronous data	Information in a stream where each information entity in the stream is bound by a time relationship to previous and successive entities.
Known device	A Bluetooth device for which at least the BD_ADDR is stored.
L2CAP	Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol
L2CAP Channel	A logical connection on L2CAP level between two devices serving a single application or higher layer protocol.
L2CAP Channel establishment	A procedure for establishing a logical connection on L2CAP level.
LE	Bluetooth Low Energy
Link	Shorthand for a logical link.
Link establishment	A procedure for establishing the default ACL link and hierarchy of links and channels between devices.
Link key	A secret key that is known by two devices and is used to authenticate the link.
LMP authentication	An LMP level procedure for verifying the identity of a remote device.
LMP pairing	A procedure that authenticates two devices and creates a common link key that can be used as a basis for a trusted relationship or a (single) secure connection.
Logical link	The lowest architectural level used to offer independent data transport services to clients of the Bluetooth system.
Logical transport	Shared acknowledgment protocol and link identifiers between different logical links.
Name discovery	A procedure for retrieving the user-friendly name (the Bluetooth Device Name) of a connectable device.
Packet	Format of aggregated bits that are transmitted on a physical channel.
Page	The initial phase of the connection procedure where a device transmits a train of page messages until a response is received from the target device or a time-out occurs.
Page scan	A procedure where a device listens for page messages received on its page scan physical channel.
Paging device	A Bluetooth device that is carrying out the page procedure.
Paired device	A Bluetooth device for which a link key has been created (either before connection establishment was requested or during connecting phase).
Passkey	A 6-digit number used to authenticate connections when Secure Simple Pairing is used.
Periodic advertising synchronization information	The control information describing a periodic advertisement that a Bluetooth Low Energy device uses to synchronize to the advertisement it describes.
Physical Channel	Characterized by synchronized occupancy of a sequence of RF carriers by one or more devices. A number of physical channel types exist with characteristics defined for their different purposes.
Physical link	A Baseband or Link Layer level connection between two devices.
Physical Transport	PHY packet transmission and/or reception on an RF channel using one or more modulation schemes.
Piconet	A collection of devices (up to eight devices in BR/EDR, exactly two devices in LE) occupying a shared physical channel where one of the devices is the Piconet Central and the remaining devices are connected to it.
Piconet Central	The BR/EDR device in a piconet whose Bluetooth Clock and Bluetooth Device Address are used to define the piconet physical channel characteristics. The LE device in a piconet which initiates the creation of the piconet, chooses the Access Address that identifies the piconet, and transmits first in each connection event.
Piconet Peripheral	Any BR/EDR device in a piconet that is not the Piconet Central, but is connected to the Piconet Central. The LE device in a piconet which is not the Central but communicates with it.
PIN	A user-friendly number that can be used to authenticate connections to a device before pairing has taken place.
Profile Broadcast Data (PBD)	A logical link that carries data from a Connectionless Peripheral Broadcast Transmitter to one or more Connectionless Peripheral Broadcast Receivers.
Pseudo-Noise Bit Sequence	A series of bits that are generated randomly.
Reflector	In Channel Sounding, the device that transmits second within a Channel Sounding step in response to a transmission from an initiator.
Resolving List	A list of records used to generate and resolve Resolvable Private Addresses. Each record contains a local Identity Resolving Key, a peer Identity Resolving Key, and a peer Identity Address.
Round-Trip Time	The time it takes for a packet to travel from an originating device to a responding device and back again to the originating device.
Scanner	A Bluetooth Low Energy device that listens for advertising events on the advertising physical channels.
Scatternet	Two or more piconets that have one or more devices in common.
Service discovery	Procedures for querying and browsing for services offered by or through another Bluetooth device.
Service Layer Protocol	A protocol that uses an L2CAP channel for transporting PDUs.
Silent device	A Bluetooth enabled device appears as silent to a remote device if it does not respond to inquiries made by the remote device.
Synchronization Scan Physical Channel	A physical channel that enables a Peripheral to receive synchronization train packets from a Central.
Synchronization Train	A series of packets transmitted on a set of fixed frequencies that deliver sufficient information for a receiving device to start receiving corresponding Connectionless Peripheral Broadcast packets or to recover the current piconet clock after missing a Coarse Clock Adjust.
Tick	(BR/EDR) the time between changes of the value of the Bluetooth Clock: 312.5 µs.
U-plane	User plane
Unknown device	A Bluetooth device for which no information (Bluetooth Device Address, link key or other) is stored.