Patent ID: 7324226

Claim:
A method for printing a document in a data communications system using a Bluetooth protocol stack including a wireless printer protocol and a Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP), the method comprising the steps of: establishing a bi-directional wireless asynchronous connection-less (ACL) connection between a processing unit including a printer client and a printer including a printer server, wherein establishing the ACL connection comprises the wireless printer protocol calling the L2CAP requesting the ACL connection and the L2CAP creating the ACL connection; establishing a connection for one or more print jobs between the printer client and the printer server, negotiating configuration parameters between the printer client and the printer server; sending keep alive messages repeatedly from the printer client to the printer server and from the printer server to the printer client, wherein at least some of the keep alive messages are sent periodically after negotiation of the configuration parameters, wherein the connection between the printer client and the printer server is closed when at least one of: (i) the printer client fails to receive one or more of the keep alive messages from the printer server, (ii) the printer client fails to communicate one or more of the keep alive messages to the printer server, (iii) the printer server fails to receive one or more of the keep alive messages from the printer client, and (iv) the printer server fails to communicate one or more of the keep alive messages from the printer client; starting a print job; sending print data from the processing unit to the printer; stopping the print job; and closing the ACL connection between the processing unit and the printer.