Bluetooth Application development using Microsoft

Question

I am looking for vendor independent way of accessing Bluetooth profiles like A2DP, AVRCP , MAP, HFP on XP either using SP2 or winsock.

I am in process of finalizing way to create application for Bluetooth. I would need to use following profiles apart from service discovery : HFP, A2DP , AVRCP ,MAP.

Till date my study is :

Microsoft XP SP2 provides a basic stack. I have figured out following ways to do it after going through MSDN:

1. Winsock. Winsock support for Bluetooth as a network protocol suite includes the Bluetooth Personal Area Network (PAN) and Dial up Networking (DUN) profiles. Bluetooth support in Windows also includes Bluetooth Human Interface Device (HID) profiles for connecting to keyboards, pointing devices, and other input devices which are unrelated to network protocols. However I don't know how to access profiles of my interest using Winsock.

2. Microsoft XP SP2 which provides basic stack. It says that profile drivers need to be installed from other vendors. However then these vendors will provide their interface. This will make my application vendor dependent.I am not sure if there is some standard way for communicating with profiles. A From where can we buy profile drivers to build a vendor independent application for accessing profiles as well

So I am trying to figure out that is their some way by which i can make a vendor independent Bluetooth application on Windows XP? How can we access profiles independent of vendor we choose for profile driver installation.

Answer 1

As you wrote the supported in-box profiles in Windows XP are: SPP (Serial Port Profile), DUN (Dial-Up Networking), HID and HRCP (Hard-Copy Replacement Profile). The response to your question lays in Microsoft statement: profiles vendors can be added, so what you can do is write your own profiles. The specification of those profiles are public on Bluetooth SIG website, and interoperability should be guaranteed this way between devices.

Answer 2

Bth_FAQ.docx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg487349.aspx)

What is new in Windows Vista?

[...]

• Synchronous connection-oriented (SCO) link support. This support is necessary for the headset and hands-free profiles.

• Kernel-mode device driver interface (DDI) support for Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP), Service Discovery Protocol (SDP), and SCO.

[...]

So, in XP there's no API for L2CAP, and apparently there is no SCO support at all. So most of the profiles you list there can't be implemented. :-( MAP is ok as it uses GOEP (i.e. RFCOMM) afaik.

Other stacks may have support: either support for the profiles in-box, and/or an API. Widcomm/Broadcom has API support for L2CAP and apparently Audio too, don't know abut build-in profile support. BlueSoleil doesn't have a L2CAP API but does have built-in support for various of the audio profiles. I don't know much about Toshiba.