Bluetooth and OBEX - Beginning J2ME: From Novice to Professional - page 195

Figure 12-2. A Bluetooth implementation

A network consisting of devices connected via Bluetooth is often called a Personal Area
Network (or PAN for short). The software portion of a Bluetooth “stack” enables data to be
interchanged between locally connected devices in a variety of ways. The different interactions
possible between devices in a PAN can be roughly classified as follows:

• Discovery : Find out what devices are connected, how they may be useful, and when a

device is no longer available (for example, you may have traveled out of range).

• Client activities : Use services that other devices provide. For example, use a printer

nearby to print your e-mail.

• Server activities : Provide services and/or information that other devices may use. For

example, a Bluetooth-enabled storage server may accept data from mobile Bluetooth
devices.

• Peer activities : Act as both client and server within an activity. For example, a business

card exchange application may enable two phones to exchange business card informa-
tion using Bluetooth.