Bluetooth Channel Sounding Hardware Documentation

[funkmaus]

Hi,

The Bluetooth Channel Sounding specification empowers every compatible device (like the new nRF54L series devices) to be a mini radar actually. The Bluetooth Channel Sounding related registers seem to be documented in the datasheet (1.0). However, I cannot find any further documentation regarding this feature. In order to further discover the possibilities of radar-like sensing features, it would be awesome to have some extended description of the register functionality (like it is also available for the Bluetooth Direction Finding, for example).

Are there any further (maybe even internal) resources available?

Thanks a lot,

Kind regards,

Gerrit.

[Elfving]

Hi,

The Bluetooth Channel Sounding specification empowers every compatible device (like the new nRF54L series devices) to be a mini radar actually.

Yeah hehe, I guess they do in a way. Though this is currently only done with devices in a connection. 

We have more on channel sounding in our docs here, and there is ofcourse a lot from SIG on the matter. Though the datasheet on the 54L15 also goes a lot into the register values used for channel sounding, see eg here.

Though we do not have anything like the WP on direction finding available at the moment, unfortunately.

Regards,

Elfving

[funkmaus]

Hi Elfving,

Thanks for your thoughts on this and the links provided!

I'm not searching for WPs or other high-level information, but actually just interested in some further explanation of the register values and the functionality controlled by them, as it is usually provided for all the other peripheral functionality. Take the Direction Finding (DF), for example: The datasheets for the nRF52 series had a dedicated subsection of the "Radio" section called "Direction Finding". This subsection gave a lot of additional information on how to use the DF-related registers. Interestingly, this subsection does not appear anymore in the nRF54 series' datasheets.

I was wondering if something similar (a dedicated subsection) is available for the Channel Sounding? You know, as the DF subsection was there and has been removed from the nRF54 series' datasheet, I thought there could be a chance that there is something similar for the Channel Sounding feature, which just has never been published?

Kind regards,

Gerrit.

[Elfving]

Looks like we just haven't gotten as far as to include all fo these details yet, though we agree that it should be included. For info about when you can expect this you need to ask your local RSM. If you have any specific question about this though, I can try to look into it now.

Regards,

Elfving

[funkmaus]

Hi Elfving,

Thanks so much for this information, it is good to know that there is something in the pipeline.

In the meantime, is there any preliminary documents that you could already share? I'm currently not building a specific product, I'm more interested in gaining knowledge in proprietary ranging solutions. Nordic has always been my favourite supplier for these kind of applications, as the documentational depth is significantly better in comparison to the usual competitors. I would love to provide my customers a proprietary positioning solution based on nRF54L in the near future.

Thanks again and

Kind regards,

Gerrit.

[Elfving]

Thanks! Love to hear it Gerrit!

I double checked and the answer is currently no unfortunately; there is nothing to share in regards to more documentation on this.

funkmaus said:

I would love to provide my customers a proprietary positioning solution based on nRF54L in the near future.

Understood. We're focusing on our solution for channel sounding so you are in the right place

Regards and happy holidays,

Elfving