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Network Access Point (NAP)

Other versions of this page are also available for the following:

Windows Mobile Not SupportedWindows Embedded CE Supported

8/28/2008

A NAP can act as a bridge between Bluetooth networks and other network technologies by using the layer-2 bridging mechanism.

For All Platforms

For more information about the procedures related to the NAP service, see the Personal Area Networking Profile Specification at this Official Bluetooth Wireless Info Web site.

For Windows Embedded CE

**A Network Access Point (NAP) is a Bluetooth device that provides the service of routing network packets between PAN User (PANU) by using Bluetooth Network Encapsulation Protocol (BNEP) and the layer-3 routing mechanism.

A NAP can only initiate a connection with a PANU that publishes a Service Discovery Protocol (SDP) record. In a NAP-to-PANU connection, a master/slave switch is not required. However, if a PANU connects to a NAP that supports multiple users, then a master/slave switch is required. You can toggle the master/slave switch by configuring the registry. For more information, see Personal Area Network (PAN) Profile Registry Settings.

Windows Embedded CE provides environment variables that you can set to configure the NAP as a router or as a bridge. The following table shows the variables to set with a description of the purpose of each.

Environment variable Description

PRJ_BTH_PAN_BRIDGE

This variable configures a Bluetooth device to be a NAP by using the layer-2 bridging mechanism. Also, you must include the Network Bridging functionality in your OS design by setting the SYSGEN_BRIDGE variable.

PRJ_BTH_PAN_ROUTER

This variable configures a Bluetooth device to be a NAP by using the layer-3 routing mechanism. Also, you must include the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) functionality in your OS design by setting the SYSGEN_GATEWAY variable.

Alternately, you can configure the NAP through registry settings. For more information, see Personal Area Network (PAN) Profile Registry Settings.**

See Also

Concepts

Personal Area Networking (PAN) Profile

Other Resources

Setting or Clearing an Environment Variable (Visual Studio)