How long does it take to scan for Bluetooth devices in range of an iPhone?

Question

I know the iPhone Bluetooth capabilities won\'t be accessible through the SDK until 3.0, but how long should it take to find devices in the area? Is it dependent on the number

Answer 1

I know this is an old question, but I thought I might add something for anyone who finds this question later.

As Simon Peverett mentions, device discovery is performed by an underlying "Inquiry Command" that is carried out by the Bluetooth Host Controller Interface. In the Bluetooth spec V4.0, Volume 2, Part E, Section 6.1.4, the spec says:

When general inquiry is initiated by a Bluetooth device, the INQUIRY state shall last TGAP(100) or longer, unless the inquirer collects enough responses and determines to abort the INQUIRY state earlier.

Elsewhere, TGAP(100) is explained to be 10.24 seconds and is described as the recommended value for the time span that a Bluetooth device performs device discovery.

In other words, a good baseline for the minimum amount of time to perform an inquiry is 10.24 seconds, or 8 of the 1.28 second periods that the Inquiry Command measures time by.