Wireshark Version 4.6.2
nrf_sniffer_for_bluetooth_le_4.1.1
I am trying to capture packets from a long BLE session using Wireshark and the nRF52840 BLE sniffer. Most times this works great and has been super helpful to development and debugging. However, while recently debugging connections between the target embedded peripheral and an Android host, I found the sniffer is also tracing "anonymous" extended advertising packets coming from the Android host despite explicitly setting the device/MAC address filtering.
I understand that I can filter out the extended advertising packets with a display filter but I am finding that eventually (after a few hours of continuous capture), peripheral specific packets are no longer captured even though for sure there is on-going traffic. I don't understand the root cause of this bug but I can say that tracing long sessions with other hosts that don't continuously send extended advertising packets has worked well. In other words, the anonymous extended advertising packets appear to "overrun" and/or cause MAC address filtering to fail.
Is there any way to exclude the extended advertising packets from the initial capture?
Below is what a typical session looks like with the device filter set to "00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 public".
What starts with:
| No. | Time | Source | Destination | Protocol | Length | Info |
| 1141 | 26.599660 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 1142 | 26.600001 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 1143 | 26.669038 | 00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 60 | ADV_IND |
| 1144 | 26.669540 | 46:48:40:fd:1c:bf | 00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 | LE LL | 38 | SCAN_REQ |
| 1145 | 26.669866 | 00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 57 | SCAN_RSP |
| 1146 | 26.670687 | 00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 60 | ADV_IND |
| 1147 | 26.671769 | 00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 60 | ADV_IND |
| 1148 | 26.864814 | 00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 60 | ADV_IND |
| 1149 | 26.865897 | 00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 60 | ADV_IND |
| 1150 | 26.866979 | 00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 60 | ADV_IND |
| 1151 | 26.953076 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 1152 | 26.953417 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 1153 | 26.953757 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 1154 | 27.056839 | 00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 60 | ADV_IND |
| 1155 | 27.057922 | 00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 60 | ADV_IND |
| 1156 | 27.058424 | 46:48:40:fd:1c:bf | 00:18:80:ff:9e:b1 | LE LL | 60 | CONNECT_IND |
| 1157 | 27.090578 | Central_... | Peripheral_... | LE LL | 35 | Control Opcode: LL_FEATURE_REQ |
| 1158 | 27.090880 | Peripheral_... | Central_... | LE LL | 35 | Control Opcode: LL_LENGTH_REQ |
| 1159 | 27.135579 | Central_... | Peripheral_... | LE LL | 35 | Control Opcode: LL_LENGTH_RSP |
| 1160 | 27.135881 | Peripheral_... | Central_... | LE LL | 35 | Control Opcode: LL_FEATURE_RSP |
eventually ends up with nothing but this:
| No. | Time | Source | Destination | Protocol | Length | Info |
| 80709 | 7872.118853 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80710 | 7872.403175 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80711 | 7872.403516 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80712 | 7872.403857 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80713 | 7872.689428 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80714 | 7872.689769 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80715 | 7872.690110 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80716 | 7872.979432 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80717 | 7872.979773 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80718 | 7872.980114 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80719 | 7873.266937 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80720 | 7873.267278 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
| 80721 | 7873.267619 | Anonymous | ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff | LE LL | 33 | ADV_EXT_IND |
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Kevin
