Method to obtain friendly names for Bluetooth devices

摘要

A method and apparatus to decrease the amount of time it takes to obtain friendly names of Bluetooth devices is presented. A name server caches friendly names for devices that it has acquired from other devices or from other name servers. The name server is any device that caches friendly names of Bluetooth devices and that makes the friendly names available to other devices. A requesting device determines if a name server has responded to an inquiry command. If a name server has responded, the device gets the friendly names the name server has cached and requests the friendly names of devices that responded that have not been cached by the name server. Identification of a name server is accomplished by embedding a marker in the friendly name field after the null character to indicate that the device is a name server.