Bluetooth stack

A Bluetooth stack refers to an implementation of the Bluetooth protocol stack.

Bluetooth stacks can be roughly divided into two:

General-purpose implementations that are written with emphasis on feature-richness and flexibility, usually for desktop computers.
Embedded system implementations intended for use in devices where resources are limited and demands are lower, such as Bluetooth peripheral devices.

General-purpose implementations

Windows

WIDCOMM

WIDCOMM is the first Bluetooth stack for the Windows operating system. The stack was initially developed by a company named Widcomm Inc., which was acquired by Broadcom Corporation in April 2004.^[1] Broadcom continues to license the stack for inclusion with many Bluetooth-powered end-user devices.

Windows XP stack

Windows XP includes a built-in Bluetooth stack starting with the Service Pack 2 update, released on 2004-08-06. Despite its inclusion with Windows, many devices still come with bundled third-party stacks which cannot be used simultaneously. Microsoft has not released an official Bluetooth stack for older Windows versions, such as Windows 2000 or Windows Me.

Linux

The Linux operating system currently has two widespread Bluetooth stack implementations:

BlueZ, included with the official Linux kernel distributions, initially developed by Qualcomm.
Affix, developed by Nokia Research Center.

BlueZ

BlueZ is the official Bluetooth stack for Linux. Its goal is to make an implementation of the Bluetooth wireless standards specifications for Linux. As of 2006, the BlueZ stack supports all core Bluetooth protocols and layers.^[2] It was initially developed by Qualcomm, and is available for Linux kernel versions 2.4.6 and up.

Embedded implementations

lwBT

lwBT is an open source lightweight Bluetooth protocol stack for embedded systems. It acts as a network interface for the lwIP protocol stack.

It supports some Bluetooth protocols and layers, such as the H4 and BCSP UART layers. Supported higher layers include: HCI, L2CAP, SDP, BNEP, RFCOMM and PPP. The supported profiles are: PAN (NAP, GN, PANU), LAP, DUN and Serial Port.

lwBT has been ported to the Renesas M16C and Atmega AVR line of microcontrollers, and Linux as well as Windows.

References

^ "Broadcom to Acquire WIDCOMM, the Industry's Leading Provider of Critical Software for Bluetooth® Wireless Devices" (Press release). Broadcom. 2004-04-19. Retrieved 2007-03-02.
^ Selim Çιracι, Evren Karaca, Mark Reşat Pariente (2006-05-19). "Bluetooth Audio Streaming on Linux-Based Embedded Devices" (PDF). Bilkent University. Retrieved 2007-03-05. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[widcomm-acquire-1] "Broadcom to Acquire WIDCOMM, the Industry's Leading Provider of Critical Software for Bluetooth® Wireless Devices" (Press release). Broadcom. 2004-04-19. Retrieved 2007-03-02.

[embedded-audio-linux-2] Selim Çιracι, Evren Karaca, Mark Reşat Pariente (2006-05-19). "Bluetooth Audio Streaming on Linux-Based Embedded Devices" (PDF). Bilkent University. Retrieved 2007-03-05. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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