Interoperability
The overall responsibility for interoperable products lies with the producers of those products, whether they are devices or software. The SIG cannot ensure interoperability, but it has taken steps to help promote it. Perhaps the most important of these is the publication of the profiles. For each of the usage models deemed to be within the scope of the version 1.0 specification, one or more profiles exist, and the profiles serve as a formalization of the usage model. The profiles provide guides to implementers to help to ensure that resulting implementations from different vendors can interoperate with each other.
Another powerful utility established by the SIG to promote interoperability is the process of qualification. Products that sport the Bluetooth logo (both a word mark and a figure mark) must undergo a set of tests. Depending upon the product being tested, these tests might include interoperability testing for the profiles that the product supports.
Another less formal method of testing is supported by the SIG: events called unplugfests. Unplugfests are gatherings of developers, typically closed to marketing and media personnel, where product implementers can test their implementations against those of others participating in the unplugfest. It is common to make implementation changes during the event as discrepancies are discovered. Unplugfests provide an effective way for developers of everything from radio and baseband packages to protocol stacks and applications to test their implementations for interoperability with other implementations. The SIG has sponsored four such events through the year 2000.