An Overview of Bluetooth with Low Energy Functionality

Traditional Bluetooth is optimized for sending a steady stream of high quality data in a power-efficient way. Bluetooth low energy technology allows for short bursts of long-range radio connections, making it ideal for applications that depend on long battery life and don’t need high throughput streaming data. This overview focuses on this low energy aspect, but also calls out some of the contrasts with traditional Bluetooth technology.

Bluetooth technology is a core component of the IoT. Bluetooth was designed to offer a wireless alternative to cable connections by exchanging data using radio transmissions. One of the most popular applications for Bluetooth has been wireless audio. This uses a version of Bluetooth called BR/EDR (Bit Rate/Enhanced Data Rate) that is optimized for sending a steady stream of high quality data in a power-efficient way.

Bluetooth version 4.0 introduced Bluetooth with low energy functionality, sometimes referred to as Bluetooth Smart, which gave developers the ability to create sensors that can run on coin-cell batteries for months and even years at a time. Some of these sensors are so efficient that the kinetic energy from just flipping a switch can provide operating power. Bluetooth low energy technology is inherently different from BR/EDR. BR/EDR establishes a relatively short-range, continuous wireless connection, which makes it ideal for uses such as streaming audio from a smartphone to a headset. Bluetooth low energy technology allows for short bursts of long- range radio connections, making it ideal for IoT applications that depend on long battery life. Furthermore, Bluetooth low energy is built on an entirely new development framework using GATT (Generic Attributes). GATT profiles describes a use case, roles, and general behaviors based on the GATT functionality. These profiles allow developers to quickly and easily develop applications to connect devices directly to applications running on smartphones, PCs, or tablets.

Bluetooth devices can be either dual mode, supporting both BR/EDR and Bluetooth low energy, or single mode, supporting Bluetooth low energy only. As well as ultra-low power and connectivity to smartphones, PCs, and tablets, other benefits include the following:

• Low cost
• Reliable and robust: Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH), retransmissions and 24-bit Cyclic Redundancy Checks (CRC)
• Secure: pairing, bonding, privacy, Man in the Middle (MITM) protection, and AES-128 encryption
• Supports rapid development:
  • Standardized profiles to cover key use cases (HR, HID, Glucose, Proximity, etc.)
  • Profiles can be developed as applications, supporting fast deployment
  • Vendor-specific profiles omit the need to wait for Bluetooth SIG to standardize profiles and operating system developers to integrate them
• Widely deployable: Supported by major platforms - iOS, Android 4.3 and newer platforms, Windows 8 and 10 OS, OSX, and Linux OS

This paper looks at the following aspects of Bluetooth low energy:

• Bluetooth with low energy architecture overview
• Radio features
• Basic of link layer
• Explanation how device discovery and connections work
• Security overview
• The Attribute Protocol
• The Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) and Bluetooth profiles
  

An Overview of the Bluetooth Low Energy Architecture 

The components are, as follows:

• Physical layer: controls radio transmission/receiving.
• Link Layer: defines packet structure, includes the state machine and radio control, and provides link layer-level encryption.

These two layers are often grouped into a controller, with the remaining layers grouped into a host. A Host-to-Controller Interface (HCI) standardizes communication between the controller and the host.

The host layers are, as follows:

• Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP): L2CAP acts as a protocol multiplexer and handles segmentation and reassembly of packets. It also provides logical channels, which are multiplexed over one or more logical links. The L2CAP used in Bluetooth low energy is an optimized and simplified protocol based on the classic Bluetooth L2CAP. Typically, application developers do not need to worry about the details of interacting with the L2CAP layer. The interaction is handled by the Bluetooth stack. The details of the L2CAP operation are not covered in this document.
• Attribute Protocol (ATT): The attribute protocol provides means to transmit data between Bluetooth devices. It relies on a Bluetooth connection and provides procedures to read, write, indicate, and notify attribute values over that connection. ATT is used in most low energy Bluetooth applications and occasionally in BR/EDR applications.
• Generic Attribute Profile (GATT): GATT is used to group individual attributes into logical services for example the Heart Rate Service, which exposes the operation of a heart rate sensor. In addition to the actual data, GATT also provides information about the attributes, such as access and required security levels.
• Generic Access Profile (GAP): GAP layer provides means for low energy Bluetooth devices to advertise themselves or other devices, make device discovery, open and manage connections and broadcast data.
• Security Manager (SM): Provides means for bonding devices, encrypt and decrypt data and enable device privacy.

These components are discussed in more detail in the following sections.

The Physical Layer

Bluetooth low energy operates in the 2.4 GHz Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) band (2402 MHz - 2480 MHz), which is license-free in most countries. The Bluetooth low energy specification defines 40 RF channels with 2 MHz channel spacing. Three of the 40 channels are advertising channels (shown in green), used for device discovery, connection establishment, and broadcast. The advertising channel frequencies are selected to minimize interference from IEEE 802.11 channels 1, 6 and 11, which are commonly used in several countries.

Bluetooth Low Energy Channels and Frequencies

Data channels are used for bidirectional communication between connected devices. Adaptive FHSS (AFH) is used to select a data channel for communication during a given time interval. AFH is reliable, robust, and adapts to interference.

All physical channels use Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK) modulation, with a modulation index of 0.5, which allows reduced peak power consumption. In Bluetooth 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 specification the physical layer data rate is 1 Mbps. Typical data throughput is typically less than or equal to 100 kbps because of small packets. The Bluetooth 5.0 standard is planned to introduce additional Improvements for increased data throughput, improved sensitivity, and longer range connections.

The recent changes in the Bluetooth and regulatory standards allow low energy Bluetooth devices to transmit up to 100 mW (20 dBm) transmit power.

The requirements for a Bluetooth low energy radio are, as follows:

The typical range for Bluetooth low energy radios is: 

The range is typically 0-50 meters to a smart phone.

The Link Layer

The Bluetooth link layer provides the first level of control and data structure over the raw radio operations and bit stream transmission and reception. For example, the link layer defines the following.

• Bluetooth low energy state machine and state transitions
• Data and advertisement packet formats
• Link Layer operations
• Connections, packet timings, retransmissions
• Link layer level security

Application developers do not need to understand these in detail, but some essential concepts affect the application design, development, and the end device operation. Summaries of these concepts are provided in this section.

Link Layer Operations

This section describes the basic link layer operations, including the following:

• Advertising
• Scanning
• Connection establishment

Advertisement

Advertisement is one of the most fundamental operations in Bluetooth low energy wireless technology. Advertisement provides a way for devices to broadcast their presence, allow connections to be established, and optionally broadcast data, such as the list of supported services, or the device name and TX power level.

A Bluetooth low energy device that is advertising broadcasts packets on one or multiple advertisement channels, which remote devices can then pick up.

Bluetooth low energy advertisement 

The application typically has control of the following advertisement parameters. 

Scanning

Scanning is the operation where a scanner is listening for incoming advertisement to discover, discover and connect, or to receive data broadcast by the advertising devices.

Two types of scanning modes are supported: passive and active scanning, illustrated below.

In passive scanning mode, the scanner listens for incoming advertisement packets. The scanner cycles through each advertisement channel in a round-robin fashion, listening to one channel at a time, as shown below:

Passive Scanning

In active scanning mode, the scanner listens for incoming advertisement packets and, upon receiving one, sends an additional scan request packet to the advertiser to learn more about it. Typically, the scan response contains information, such as the list of supported services and friendly name, but the application has full control of the scan response data payload.

Active Scanning

The application typically controls the following scan parameters. 

Connection Establishment

Connections allow application data to be transmitted in a reliable and robust manner, as Bluetooth low energy connections use CRCs, acknowledgements, and retransmissions of lost data to ensure correct data delivery. In addition, the Bluetooth low energy connections use Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) to detect and adapt to the surrounding RF conditions and provide a reliable physical layer. Connections also support encryption and decryption of data to ensure its confidentiality.

The Bluetooth low energy connection always starts by a scanner receiving an advertisement packet that includes the fact that the advertiser allows connections. The figure below illustrates how Bluetooth low energy connection establishment happens.

Connection, Transmission of Packet, and Connection Termination 

The application typically controls the following connection parameters. 

The connection event pictured below starts when the main sends a packet to the secondary at the defined connection interval. The secondary can respond 150 μs after it has received a packet from the main. If the secondary has no data to send, it can skip a certain number of connection events defined by the secondary latency parameter (seen below). If no packets are received by the main or secondary within the time defined by the supervision timeout, the connection is terminated.

If the secondary has more data to send than fit into a single packet, the connection event will automatically extend and the secondary can send as many packets as there is time until the beginning of next connection interval. This can only be used with attribute protocol operations that do not require an acknowledgement.

Network Topologies

Device roles in Bluetooth low energy include the following:

• Advertiser: device that broadcasts advertisement packets, but is not able to receive them. It can allow or disallow connections.
• Scanner: device that only listens for advertisements. It can connect to an advertiser.
• Secondary: device connected to a single main (BT 4.0) or multiple mains (BT 4.1 and newer).
• Main: device that is connected to one or more secondaries. Theoretically, a main can have unlimited number of secondary devices connected to it, but in practice the main can connect 4-8 secondaries at a time.
• Hybrid: it is possible for a device to advertise and scan at the same time or be connected to a main and advertise or scan simultaneously. This is, however, vendor-specific, and the exact features that are supported should be checked with the vendor.

Generic Access Profile (GAP)

The Generic Access Profile (GAP) is one of the first layers every Bluetooth developer gets exposed to because GAP is used to control how a device is visible and connectable by other devices and also how to discover and connect to remote devices.

GAP provides access to the link layer operations described in section 4.1, Link Layer Operations, which are related to the device discovery, connection establishment and termination, and connection timing control.

GAP defines device roles that provide specific requirements for the underlying controller. Roles allow devices to have radios that either transmit (TX) only, receive (RX) only, or do both.

• Broadcaster (TX only): Sends advertising events and broadcast data.
• Observer (RX only): Listens for advertising events and broadcast data.
• Peripheral (RX and TX): Always secondary, is connectable and advertising. Designed for a simple device using a single connection with a device in the Central role.
• Central (RX and TX): Always main, never advertises. Designed for a device that is in charge of initiating and managing multiple connections.
  

• Connectable: Can make a connection. State: Non-connectable, connectable.
• Discoverable: Can be discovered (is advertising). State: None, limited, general.
• Bondable: If connectable, will pair with connected device for a long-term connection. State: Non-bondable, bondable. 
  

• Name discovery: Go into a menu and find the name of the other device. The name is shared with BR/EDR in a dual-mode device.
• Device discovery: Search for devices that are available for connection.
  • Find address and name of devices.
  • Define device role.
• Link establishment: After selecting an advertising device, connect to it.
  • Instruct Link layer to send a CONNECT_REQ.
  • Perform service discovery.
  • Request device authentication (not data authentication).
  • Request use of services.
• Service discovery: Used by devices in Central and Peripheral roles to find services available on peer devices. 

Attribute Protocol (ATT)

Bluetooth low energy profiles expose a state of a device. The state is exposed as one or more values called attributes. The protocol to access these attributes is called the Attribute Protocol (ATT). ATT defines the communication between two devices playing the roles of server and client, respectively, on top of a dedicated L2CAP channel. The Attribute protocol defines two roles:

• Server: The device that stores the data as one or more attributes
• Client: The device that collects the information for one or more servers

The client can access the server's attributes by sending requests, which trigger response messages from the server. For greater efficiency, a server can also send to a client two types of unsolicited messages that contain attributes: notifications, which are unconfirmed; and indications, which require the client to send a confirmation. A client may also send commands to the server to write attribute values. Request/response and indication/confirmation transactions follow a stop-and-wait scheme.

This section describes attributes and provides a summary of protocol methods.

Device Roles

Attributes

Attributes are arrays that can vary from 0 to 512 bytes, as shown in the following example, and they can be fixed or variable length.

Example: 

All attributes have handles, which are used to address an individual attribute, as shown in the following example.
The client accesses the server's attributes using the handle. 

Example:

Attributes also have a type, described by a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID), as shown in the following example. The UUID determines what the attribute value means.

Two types of UUIDs are used: 

• Globally unique 16-bit UUID, defined in the characteristics specification (https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/bluetooth-core- specification)
• Manufacturer-specific 128-bit UUIDs, which can be generated online (for example https://www.uuidgenerator.net/)

Attributes also have permissions, which can be the following:

• Readable / Not readable
• Writable / Not writable
• Readable and writable / Not readable and not writable

The attributes may also require the following:

• Authentication to read or write
• Authorization to read or write
• Encryption and pairing to read or write

The attribute types and handles are public information, but the permissions are not. Therefore, a read or write request may result an error, ‘Read/Write Not Permitted’ or ‘Insufficient Authentication’.

Acknowledgements

ATT operations can optionally require acknowledgements (ACKs). This allows the application to know what data packets have been successfully transmitted and can be used to design extremely reliable applications.

Because the server must wait for an ACK from the client, data throughput is affected.

Non-ACKed operations can be used in applications requiring high throughput, because multiple operations can be performed within a connection interval. The Link Layer still retransmits lost packets, so reliability is not affected, but the application can't know which packets have been transmitted successfully.

ACK and Non-ACK Data Transfer

Attribute Protocol Methods

The Attribute Protocol is a stateless sequential protocol, meaning that no state is stored in the protocol and only
one operation can be performed at a time.

The available Attribute Protocol methods are described in the following table: 

Generic Attribute Profile (GATT)

Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) is built on top of the Attribute Protocol (ATT) and establishes common framework for the data transported and stored by the Attribute Protocol. GATT defines two roles: Server and Client.

The GATT server stores the data transported over the Attribute Protocol and accepts ATT requests from the GATT client. The GATT server on the other hand sends responses to requests and when configured, sends indication and notifications to the GATT client when events occur on the GATT server. GATT also specifies the format of data contained on the GATT server.

Attributes, as transported by the Attribute Protocol, are formatted as services and characteristics. Services may contain a collection of characteristics. Characteristics contain a single value and any number of descriptors describing the characteristic value.

Bluetooth profiles specify the structure in which data is exchanged. The profile defines elements, such as services and characteristics, used in a profile, but it may also contain definitions for security and connection-establishment parameters. Typically, a profile consists of one or more services that are needed to accomplish a high-level use case, such as heart-rate or cadence monitoring. Standardized profiles allow device and software vendors to build inter-operable devices and applications.

Bluetooth SIG standardized profiles are defined in profile specifications, which are available at https://www.bluetooth.com/develop-with-bluetooth/.

Services

Services are collections of data composed of one or more characteristics used to accomplish a specific function of a device, such as battery monitoring or temperature data, rather than a complete use case.

Standardized Bluetooth SIG are defined in service specifications, which are available at https://www.bluetooth.com/develop-with-bluetooth/.

Characteristics

A characteristic is a value used in a service, either to (1) expose and/or exchange data and/or (2) control information. Characteristics have a well-defined, known format. They also contain information about how the value can be accessed, which security requirements must be fulfilled, and, optionally, how the characteristic value is displayed or interpreted. Characteristics may also contain descriptors that describe the value or permit configuration of characteristic data indications or notifications.

Standardized characteristics are defined in the Characteristic Specification, which are available at: https://www.bluetooth.com/develop-with-bluetooth/.

GATT Data Structure and Operation

Bluetooth Low Energy Security

To make sure the communication over Bluetooth is always secure and protected, the technology provides several features to ensure the trust, integrity, privacy, and encryption of data. The first section provides an overview of Bluetooth low energy smart security. Subsequent sections discuss the following topics in more detail, as follows:

• Pairing
• Encryption
• Privacy

Bluetooth Low Energy Security

The Bluetooth specification defines security features to protect the user’s data and identity. The security features used by are either NIST compliant or FIPS approved.

Bluetooth low energy provides the three basic security services, as follows:

• Authentication and Authorization: Establishing trusted relationships between devices
• Encryption and Data Protection: Protecting data integrity and confidentiality
• Privacy and Confidentiality: Preventing device tracking

The Bluetooth security model includes five security features, as follows:

• Pairing: the process for creating shared secret keys
• Bonding: storing the keys created during pairing so they can be used later
• Device authentication: verification of stored keys
• Encryption: data confidentiality
• Message integrity: protection against data alteration

The Security Manager is responsible for the following:

• Pairing
• Key distribution
• Generating hashes and short term keys

The Link Layer, on the other hand, is responsible for data encryption and decryption. The Bluetooth low energy security features provide protection against the following common threats in wireless communications.

Man-in-the-Middle Protection

A Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack requires the ability to monitor, alter, or inject messages into a communications. This can, for example, be done with active eavesdropping where the attacker listens and relays messages between two parties who think are directly communicating with each other’s over a private connection which is actually fully controlled by the attacker.

Bluetooth low energy provides protection against MITM attacks if the devices are paired either by using the passkey entry or out-of-band pairing method. Alternatively, LE Secure connections and the numeric comparison pairing method can be used in devices that use Blue- tooth 4.2 or newer standards.

Protection against Passive Eavesdropping

Passive Eavesdropping means that someone is passively listening (for example by using a sniffer) to the communication of others. To protect against passive eavesdropping, LE Secure Connection uses ECDH public key cryptography, which provides a very high degree of strength against passive eavesdropping attacks as it allows the key exchange over unsecured channels.

Privacy Protection

Because most low energy Bluetooth devices have an address associated to them and the address is carried in the advertisement packets, it is possible to associate the address to devices to track them. The privacy feature in Bluetooth and the frequently changing address can be used to protect against tracking.

Pairing

The Bluetooth pairing is the process where the parties involved exchange their identity information to set up a trusted relationship and generate encryption keys used for data exchange. The Bluetooth low energy technology provides multiple options for pairing, depending on the security requirements of the application.

Bluetooth versions 4.0 and 4.1 use the Secure Simple Pairing model, in which users can choose one method from Just Works, Passkey Entry and Out-of-Band mechanisms based on the input/output capability of the devices.

In Bluetooth version 4.2, security is enhanced by the new LE Secure Connections pairing model, by adding a numeric comparison method, and by introducing the Elliptical Curve Hellman-Diffie (ECDH) key exchange algorithm.

The tables below summarize the association models that can be used between both parties depending on their supported I/O capabilities.

Encryption

Bluetooth low energy uses AES-CCM cryptography for encryption and the encryption is performed by the BLE controller. This encryption function generates 128-bit encrypted using the AES-128-bit block cypher as defined in FIPS-1971.

Privacy

It also supports a feature that reduces the ability to track a Bluetooth devices over a period of time. This is achieved by changing the Bluetooth device address on a frequent basis. The changing address is called the public address and the bonded devices are able to resolve the private (non-changing) address from the public address.

To resolve the private address, the devices need to be previously bonded. The public address is generated using the device’s Identity Resolving Key (IRK) exchanged during the previous pairing or bonding procedure.

In Bluetooth 4.0 and 4.1 standards, the private addresses are resolved and generated at the host. In Bluetooth 4.2 and newer standards, the private addresses are resolved and generated at the controller without involving the host.