Bluetooth spec. question

Hi,
I am unclear from looking at the Bluetooth spec. as to whether every
single bluetooth device has its own Bluetooth Device Address.
For example, if I buy two identical bluetooth headsets, will each
individual device have a unique address, or will both devices share
the same address, as they are the same product?
I presume the former, but that begs the question, won't we run out of
available addresses for new Bluetooth devices at some point? The
address is a 48 bit value, assigned by the IEEE body.

I need to know this before investing in hardware for a project.

Thanks for any help.
Mike

Mike wrote:

> Hi,
> I am unclear from looking at the Bluetooth spec. as to whether every
> single bluetooth device has its own Bluetooth Device Address.
> For example, if I buy two identical bluetooth headsets, will each
> individual device have a unique address, or will both devices share
> the same address, as they are the same product?
> I presume the former, but that begs the question, won't we run out of
> available addresses for new Bluetooth devices at some point? The
> address is a 48 bit value, assigned by the IEEE body.
>
> I need to know this before investing in hardware for a project.

Each individual device has a unique address, same as for Ethernet and wifi.

Eventually, yes, all available addresses will be used. That will happen
when there are approximately 45,000 Bluetooth devices for every man, woman,
and child on Earth.

> Thanks for any help.
> Mike

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

J. Clarke wrote:
> Mike wrote:
>
>
>>Hi,
>>I am unclear from looking at the Bluetooth spec. as to whether every
>>single bluetooth device has its own Bluetooth Device Address.
>>For example, if I buy two identical bluetooth headsets, will each
>>individual device have a unique address, or will both devices share
>>the same address, as they are the same product?
>>I presume the former, but that begs the question, won't we run out of
>>available addresses for new Bluetooth devices at some point? The
>>address is a 48 bit value, assigned by the IEEE body.

The 48bit value in question is not assigned by the IEEE, although the range available for bluetooth MAC addresses
comes from the Ethernet IEEE 802 address space.

The Bluetooth SIG assigns implementing companies an individual range and they burn individual addresses into devices.

>>
>>I need to know this before investing in hardware for a project.
>
>
> Each individual device has a unique address, same as for Ethernet and wifi.
>
> Eventually, yes, all available addresses will be used. That will happen
> when there are approximately 45,000 Bluetooth devices for every man, woman,
> and child on Earth.
>
>
>>Thanks for any help.
>>Mike
>
>

Rob Shepherd wrote:

>
> The 48bit value in question is not assigned by the IEEE, although the
> range available for bluetooth MAC addresses
> comes from the Ethernet IEEE 802 address space.
>

Oh Yes they do.

> The Bluetooth SIG assigns implementing companies an individual range and
> they burn individual addresses into devices.
>

Oh No they do not.

The IEEE assigns an Organisational Unique Idntifier (OUI) to each
company, this allows that compant to produce approx 16 million devices
before need to obtain a new OUI. See grouper.ieee.org.

pzboyz

"J. Clarke" <jclarke@nospam.invalid> wrote in message news:<cklrh102gr9@news2.newsguy.com>...

> Each individual device has a unique address, same as for Ethernet and wifi.
>
> Eventually, yes, all available addresses will be used. That will happen
> when there are approximately 45,000 Bluetooth devices for every man, woman,
> and child on Earth.

Well I have two bluetooth devices so far. Better keep a tally.
Thanks to everyone for the useful info.

Mike

pzboyz wrote:
> Rob Shepherd wrote:
>
>>
>> The 48bit value in question is not assigned by the IEEE, although the
>> range available for bluetooth MAC addresses
>> comes from the Ethernet IEEE 802 address space.
>>
>
> Oh Yes they do.

Sorry yes, you are right. for some reason I thought the SIG kept track of OUIs
like they do for VendorIDs etc...

>
>> The Bluetooth SIG assigns implementing companies an individual range
>> and they burn individual addresses into devices.
>>
>
> Oh No they do not.

Yes, But having an OUI has an implicit range associated.

>
> The IEEE assigns an Organisational Unique Idntifier (OUI) to each
> company, this allows that compant to produce approx 16 million devices
> before need to obtain a new OUI. See grouper.ieee.org.
>
> pzboyz