Bluetooth PHYs and Ranges – Part 2

Excerpt From Bluetooth Vulnerabilities (Part 2) Webinar Find out more about the Bluetooth PHYs and Ranges Presented by CTO, Dr. Brett Walkenhorst In the history of Bluetooth technology, data rates have evolved from one, two, and three megabit per second for Bluetooth Classic, and one megabit per second for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). With version five of the spec, new modes were introduced, including a two-megabit mode for increased speed and coded phi for extended range. Tests carried out by several groups applying a combination of directional antennas, signal amplifiers, and coded phi, revealing larger distances were attainable even if usual link ranges were just fifty to a hundred meters.

Key Takeaways

• Bluetooth Classic runs at 1 to 3 Mbps; BLE gained a 2M high-rate mode and a long-range Coded PHY in version 5
• Coded PHY trades data rate for roughly four times the range through added redundancy
• Typical links are 50 to 100 meters, but that range is not a security boundary
• With directional antennas, amplifiers, and Coded PHY, testers have demonstrated links and attacks from over a mile away

Video Transcript

The physical layer, the Bluetooth classic has one, two, and three megabit per second raw data rates, l e for a long time had one megabit per second, but a few years later in version five of the spec, a couple of new fine modes were introduced a two m mode that doubled that raw data rate for a reduced range and coded phi which introduced redundancy into the data structure for a reduced data rate but a much longer range.

Approximately four times what you can get with the standard BOE. Now, typical link ranges are on the order of fifty to a hundred meters. But in testing that various groups have done, including Vasteel, we've discovered that you can go much much farther than that. And we do this by some combination of three things, directional antennas, signal amplifiers, and or coded phi.

That that five that introduces redundancy. So this is a combination of hardware and software or just one of those. And and we can we can get links that that we've tested that can go as high as two hundred seventy four meters, five hundred meters, seventeen seventy meters. So over a mile, this one group was able to demonstrate a hack.

Using some additional hardware on the hacker device.