Is it possible to advertise, read advertisements from other ble devices all while in an active bluetooth connection?

[DMS]

Hello,

I am fairly new to developing ble beacon applications and was wondering if it was possible for my device to perform the following operations simultaneously:

• Advertise its UUID 
• Reading advertisements from nearby devices storing UUIDs
• Transferring this data to a device in real time (thus being in an active connection)

I intend to have a device acquire UUIDs and RSSI values of nearby devices using ble GAP evt. adv. report parameters, store them temporarily in a data structure and offload them to an android device as a string (using UART), all this occurs while it is also advertising for other similar devices which will in turn perform the same operation on their end.

I'd like to know if this was possible specifically on the nRF51822 and nRF52832 and also would appreciate any suggestions on implementing this. 

Thank you.

[Håvard]

Hi DMS,

This is definitely possible. There is not one app already that does exactly what you want to do, but let me point you to some useful building blocks.

ble_app_multiperipheral shows how advertising can continue during connection is made. (pairs with ble_app_blinky_c)

ble_app_multilink_central shows how scanning can continue during a connection. (pairs with ble_app_blinky)

ble_app_hrs_rscs_relay is a bit more complex but is a good example of how to be central and peripheral at the same time. (To understand this example you may want to try out the example is splices together: ble_app_hrs_c + ble_app_hrs and ble_app_rscs + ble_app_rscs_c).

Good luck, have fun!