Frequency Hopping and Downlink design patterns for 8 kHz unacknowledged ESB

[Lucca Morret]

Hi,

Understood regarding the 8 kHz limit: to stay within the $125\ \mu\text{s}$ budget on the nRF54L, ESB must run at 4 Mbps, unacknowledged (noack = true), in plain mode (NRF_ESB_MAC_BASIC) due to the turnaround time constraint.

Because pure unacknowledged mode eliminates hardware ACK feedback and standard ACK payload piggybacking, what are Nordic's recommended architectural approaches for:

1. Downlink Configuration (PRX - PTX): Handling host/companion-app commands sent from the dongle to the mouse.

2. Frequency Hopping: Implementing frequency hopping and detecting RF interference on the mouse (PTX) side when running unacknowledged, since TX_SUCCESS fires upon packet departure regardless of whether the dongle actually received it.

Are there existing reference implementations or recommended design patterns for solving these two requirements under an unacknowledged 8 kHz stream?

Thanks!

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi Luca, 

Not sure what is NRF_ESB_MAC_BASIC. Do you have some custom implementation?

You must switch sometimes to a mode with acknowledge. This way you can send data other way (answer to point 1), and switch frequency at the same time (answer to point 2).

There is no solution for those two in unacknowledged mode. There is a new implementation that solves those problems, but it is restricted and shared with our customers under NDA. 

Regards,
Amanda H.

[Lucca Morret]

Hi Amanda, sorry its my mistake for the NRF_ESB_MAC_BASIC. Regarding with the new implementation you mentioned how cani get more info of it? can i contact my team provide team regarding it or to communicate directly with the Nordic team?

[Amanda Hsieh]

Please contact your Regional Sales Manager or use the contact form.