nRF52 BLE 5.0 compatibility

[chtsai]

Dear Sir,

I have comptibility question of nRF52 or BLE 5.0.

Although BLE5.0 is backward compatible with BLE 4.2 but it's seems no document tell user about how to handle compatibility issue between different version of BLE device.

BLE 5.0 adds tree new features but not all BLE5.0 device support all  and how a BLE device to know capability of peer device  so it can use the right method to communication bwtween each other ?

There are many BLE 4.x devices in the market ,   I built a nRF52 BLE 5.0 peripheral/center device or a smart phone BLE APP then how to handle different situations when peer device is BLE4 or BLE5 (not know beforehand) ?

More detail more appreciation special include new version of Android / iOS which support BLE 5.

Thanks in advance.

[Bjørn Kvaale]

I believe this is handled automatically. Take a look at the Bluetooth Core Specifications for more info on this.

It seems Android Oreo supports Bluetooth 5 connectivity. As for iOS, it seems iOS 11 is the first Apple OS that supports Bluetooth 5.

[chtsai]

Thanks reply quickly,

I  understand BLE 4.x but not familiar with 5 ,Could help provide more detail infomation that Nordic knew in these situation of compatibility or help specify point out (chapters) where in the Core Specification talking about these issues ? We need these information to know how to handle these situations if our BLE 5 product appear in the current market in the future. 

Thanks,

 

[Bjørn Kvaale]

I think the easiest suggestion is just to search for "backward" in the pdf & you can find all of the instances where backwards compatibility is mentioned. Hope that helps!