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Available 16-bit UUIDs

José Villanueva

Hi everyone,

I have been reading the Specifications of Bluetooth 4.1, mostly about Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) for Services, Characteristics, etc.

I found a case of a device which has an implementation of a custom service with four characteristics. These characteristics are identified with UUIDs (0xFFF1 to 0xFFF4), but they're not complemented with a type vendor base UUID (own generated 128-bit identifier). I mean, they are using these UUIDs (0xFFF1 to 0xFFF4) just as they are, as one would do with, for example, Appearance (0x2A01), which is a characteristic defined in Bluetooth Specifications.

I tried to convince these people to generate an own 128-bit and use these UUIDs to respect the specifications, but they say these four 16-bit UUIDs are free for use (and it's written somewhere in the Bluetooth Specifications, they say, but I haven't found that yet), which I think it's not true (at least for Bluetooth 4.1) after reading that all 16-bit UUIDs are reserved for defined or future uses in the Bluetooth Core Specifications.

My question is: is that true that one can use these UUIDs (0xFFF1 to 0xFFF4) freely without having to use them with an own generated 128-bit UUID? I may be wrong, and it's use may be available for former versions of Bluetooth, isn't it?

Best regards!

  • 0

    You were right and them wrong: all 16-bit UUIDs mapped to default 128-bit BT SIG UUID base are restricted in the Bluetooth world to GATT objects specified by the group and they are not "free to use". Last 512 numbers in that space (0xFE00..0xFFFF) are allocated to organizations/corporations but they are all subject of registration and fee. Indeed you might disrespect this rule and hard to say if anything wrong happens... but formally you shouldn't do it. It's pretty clearly visible in these two UUID lists on BT SIG page: 16-bit UUIDs for members and 16-bit UUIDs for SDOs. So your customer or supplier is most probably violating BT SIG certification of their device (if they have any) and as it is so easy and "free of charge" to generate custom 128-bit UUID base it's pretty lame not doing it.

  • 0 in reply to endnode

    Thanks endnode, now I know they wanted me to doubt about my researches. Also, I agree with you in that they should generate their own 128-bit UUID which as you say is 'free' and would help them comply with their BT SIG certification, which as far as I know, they are just starting the process to get one. I should talk to them again and make them understand how much respecting even the smallest detail of the BT SIG Specifications accounts for having a quality device in every aspect.

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