AES CCM and SD130/132

[Jonathan]

Hi,

We're using nRF51822 and in the future we'll use nRF52832. We do use bluetooth, but as far as I know, we don't use encryption (code is based on the HRS example, and I removed anything regarding bonding). We'd like to be able to use AES-CCM hardware module though. I'm not aware of any sd_* call to do that, so my main wonder is: can I safely use the AES-CCM peripheral while SD is in use (SD130 v2.0.1 so far) ?

Thanks!

[bjorn-spockeli]

Hi Jonathan,

The CCM peripheral will be blocked from application access while the S130 SoftDevice is enabled, this is stated here in the S130 Product Specification.

You can use the ECB peripheral to perform encryption while the SoftDevice is enabled, i.e. there are SoftDevice APIs for accessing it. However, if you need to use the AES-CCM peripheral you will need to either use the S130 Timeslot API or disable the SoftDevice, use the AEs-CCM peripheral and then re-enable it when you're done. The latter implies that the BLE connection will be broken and you will have to reconnect after re-enabling the SoftDevice.

Best regards

Bjørn