Bluetooth v4.2

Bluetooth Test Set MT8852B

The Bluetooth Test Set MT8852B is the market leading RF measuring instrument for R&D, design verification and production test of a wide range of products that integrate Bluetooth technology. Examples include phones, headsets and M2M products, as well as modules. The MT8852B provides full SIG compliant testing for Bluetooth Core specifications v1.2, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0+HS, 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2.

Bluetooth v4.2 capabilities with MT8852B (Option)

Tx Tests: Length of analyzed data changed from 37 to 255 octets.
Rx Tests: Set max. output data length to 255 octets.
EUT Control: Using Direct Test Mode control of the Bluetooth Smart or Smart Ready device, the MT8852B’s EUT Control configures the test data length to a maximum of 255 octets.

Leaflet: BLE Data Length Extension Option

RF tests of Bluetooth v4.2 devices are not supported by previous Bluetooth test sets; a tester supporting these functions is required.

Bluetooth Low Energy Driving M2M and IoT

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) announced the Bluetooth v4.2 upgrade to the Bluetooth low energy specification on December 3, 2014.
Following the release of the low-power-consumption Bluetooth low energy specification in 2010, it has been used increasingly by more smartphones and tablets, offering many new applications.
Bluetooth v4.1 announced in 2013 supports strengthened functions including IPv6, automatic reconnection, etc.
96% of wearable devices released so far use Bluetooth Smart, which is becoming the de facto standard for wearables.

Bluetooth v4.2 - "Value Proposition" Pillars

Enables IoT	Faster	Smarter
Internet Protocol Support Profile (IPSP)	~10x capacity - increased payload size (from 27 to 251 octets)	More power efficient (moving private address resolution from Host to Controller)
HTTP Proxy Service (HPS)	Provides up to 2.5x speed for larger data transfers	Implements the industry standard algorithm for encryption-key generation (diffie-hellman)

Key Points of Bluetooth v4.2

Bluetooth Low Energy Data Packet Length Extension

Enhancement to increase the length of data packets from 37 octets to 255 octets to increase the effective throughput of the system by reducing the overhead of the system and increasing the efficiency when transmitting data

Bluetooth Low Energy Secure Connections

Bluetooth Low Energy Security Manager enhancement with Public Key Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) Key Generation, tracking Secure Connections for the Basic Rate/EDR transport

Enhanced Privacy 1.2 (Link Layer Privacy)

Privacy enhancement allowing more efficient implementations and enabling the use of directed advertisement when privacy is enabled

Bluetooth Low Energy Data Packet Length Extension

Overview

Increases length field from 5 to 8 bits
- Data payload length increases from 27 to 251 octets
BER requirement (30% PER) scales based on supported payload length
New LL sequence to indicated max supported packet lengths

Benefits

2.5 times throughput increase
Faster data transfers
Fewer packets required for a given amount of data

Bluetooth Low Energy Secure Connections

Overview

Updates Bluetooth low energy pairing to only use NIST approved algorithms
- P-256 elliptic curve
- AES-CMAC for hashing
Secure Connections Only Mode
Cross transport key generation
- Basic Rate / EDR - Bluetooth low energy
- Bluetooth low energy - Basic Rate / EDR

Benefits

Removes known security weaknesses
Bluetooth low energy pairing updated to same security level as Basic Rate / EDR Secure Connections
Same usability as Basic Rate / EDR pairing mechanisms

Enhanced Privacy 1.2

Overview

Resolvable private address resolution in Controller
- Bluetooth v4.1 only supported address resolution in Host
Use of white list for devices using resolvable private addresses
Backwards compatible with Bluetooth v4.1

Benefits

Reduces the frequency of waking up the Host
Lower system power consumption