Bluetooth Glossary
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Another useful glossary of Bluetooth terms can
be found
via Tality's
Useful Glossary & Useful
Ericsson
Glossary
A
B C D E F
G H I JK L
M N O P Q
R S T UV WXYZ
A
AP
Access Point - a (short range) wireless basestation which allows a wireless
device to access a network
ACK
Acknowledgement protocol
ACL
Asynchronous Connectionless Link - used for data communications over Bluetooth
AGC
Automatic Gain Control
AMPS
American Mobile Phone System, US cellular standard
API
Application Programming Interface
ARIB
Japanese Association of Radio Industries and Businesses
ARQ
Automatic Repeat Request (protocol)
AWGN
Additive White Gaussian Noise
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B
BER
Bit Error Rate (or Ratio), a measure of the quality of a wireless link
BPSK
Binary Phase Shift Keying modulation
BQA
Bluetooth Qualification Administrator
BQB
Bluetooth Qualified Body
BQRB
Bluetooth Qualification Review Board
BQ PRD Bluetooth
Qualification Program Reference Document
BQTF
Bluetooth Qualification Test Facility
BS
Base station - the fixed radio component of a cordless link, single channel or
multi channel.
Term also used in cellular radio
BT
Bandwidth-Time product for GMSK modulation
Sometimes the abbreviation BT is also used as a shorthand for Bluetooth
(non-preferred usage)
BTR
Bit Timing Recovery, used to permit synchronisation across a radio link
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C
CDMA
Code Division Multiple Access
CF
Compact Flash, a standard for plug-in add-ons for PDAs, digital cameras, MP3
players etc
CRC
Cyclic Redundancy Check, a form of error control
CSMA
Carrier Sense Multiple Access
CVSD
Continuously Variable Slope Delta Modulation, the speech coding scheme used by
Bluetooth
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D
DCA
Dynamic Channel Assignment
DECT
Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications, the ETSI standard
(originally, prior to 1995, Digital European Cordless
Telecommunications)
DLC
Data Link Control layer, protocol layer of the OSI stack
DPIT
Designated Profile Interoperability Testers
DSP
Digital Signal Processing
DUN
Dial Up Networking
Duplex
Simultaneous two way communication
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E
EMC
ElectroMagnetic Compatibility
ETSI
European Telecommunications Standards Institute
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F
FCC
US Federal Communications Commission
FDD
Frequency Division Duplex
FDMA
Frequency Division Multiple Access
FEC
Forward Error Correction - a method of protecting against corruption of
transmitted bits
FHS
Frequency Hop Synchronisation - a type of packet used in Bluetooth used to allow
device discovery
FHSS
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum, hopping a carrier amongst a pseudorandom
sequence of channels
FSK
Frequency Shift Keying
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G
GAP
Generic Access Profile of DECT
GFSK
Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying, the modulation scheme used by Bluetooth
GMSK
Gaussian filtered Minimum Shift Keying
GPRS
Generalised Packet Radio Service, of GSM
GPS
Global Positioning System
GSM
Global System for Mobile, the digital cellular radio system specified by ETSI,
adopted worldwide
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H
Handoff The
procedure whereby communications between a cordless device and an access point
are automatically routed via an alternative access point (or possibly via an
alternative channel to the same one) when this is necessary and appropriate to
maintain or improve communications
Handover Another term for
Handoff
HCI
Host
Controller Interface
HDLC
High level Data Link Control - type of protocol
HIPERLAN HIgh PErformance Radio Local Area
Network, an ETSI 5GHz wireless networking standard
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I
IEEE 802.11 WLAN data communication
standard
IN
Intelligent Network
IS54
US Digital AMPS standard
IS95
US CDMA cellular standard
ISM
Industrial, Scientific and Medical - the unlicensed 2.5
GHz frequency band used by Bluetooth.
ISO
International Standards Organisation
IWP
Interworking Profile
IWU
Interworking Unit
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J, K
L
L2CAP
Logical Link Control and Adaptation
Protocol
LAN
Local Area Network
LM or LMP Link Manager (Protocol)
LNA
Low Noise Amplifier
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M
MAC
Medium Access Control, protocol layer
Microdiversity Diversity between antennas with relatively
small spacing (of order quarter wavelength) to counter multipath fading effects
MOS
Mean Opinion Score, used in speech quality measurements
MoU
Memorandum of Understanding
MPEG
Motion Pictures Expert Group, family of video codec standards
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N
NACK
Not Acknowledge - a form of protocol where action is taken if no acknowledgement
is received
NWK/NWL Network Layer, protocol layer
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O
OBEX
Generalised Multi-Transport)
Object Exchange Protocol
OS
Operating System
OSI
Open Systems Interconnection
The ISO standard for communications, a seven layer reference model for protocol
specification
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P
PA
Power Amplifier
PAN
Personal Area Network
PCMCIA
Personal Computer Manufacturers' Card Industry Association, a standard for
plug-in PC cards, now usually known simply as PC Card
PCS
Personal Communications Service
PDA
Personal Digital Assistant
PDC
The Japanese Personal Digital Cellular standard
PHL or PHY Physical Layer, lowest protocol
layer
PHS
Personal Handyphone System - Japanese cordless standard
Piconet
A single network of a Bluetooth master and (up to seven) slave device(s)
PIT
Profile Interoperability Testers
PSM
Protocol & Service Multiplexer, used in Bluetooth
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Q
QPL
Qualified Products List, maintained by the Bluetooth SIG, a list of all
Bluetooth-compliant products
QPSK
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying modulation
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R
RFCOMM Serial Port Emulation, part of
the Bluetooth protocol stack
RFI
Radio Frequency Interference
RFID
Radio Frequency Identification
RLAN
Radio Local Area Network
RSSI
Received Signal Strength Indication
RTOS
Real Time Operating System
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S
Scatternet
A collection of interconnected Bluetooth piconets
SCO
Synchronous Connection Oriented link - used for voice communications over
Bluetooth
SDLC
Synchronous Data Link Control
SDP
Service Discovery Protocol
SIM
Subscriber Identification Module, as used eg in GSM
Simplex
One way communication
SMS
Short Message Service, as used in a cellular network
SMT
Surface Mount Technology
SNR
Signal to Noise Ratio
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T
TCRL
Test Case Reference List, part of the Qualification Program, a list
of relevant test cases
TCS
Telephony Control
protocol Specification
TCH
Traffic Channel
TDD
Time Division Duplex
TDM
Time Division Multiplexing
TDMA
Time Division Multiple Access
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U, V
UMTS
Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service, being standardised by ETSI
UPF
UnPlug Fest, interoperability testing conferences (restricted attendance)
organised by the Bluetooth SIG
VCO
Voltage Controlled Oscillator
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W, X, Y, Z
WLAN
Wireless Local Area Network
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