BLE advert local name character set

Question

I've read this tutorial: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/tutorials/b/bluetooth-low-energy/posts/ble-advertising-a-beginners-tutorial 
 And also Bluetooth CSS, Part A, 1.2, and it doesn't state anything about the character set to be used for the local name. Now the packet structure, as it specifies the length first, makes it totally compatibly with using binary, like \x00-\xFF. 
 Does anyone know if this is officially supported, could anyone point me to some BLE reference stating what characters/bytes are valid in the advert packet local name? 
 Thanks! 
 2.5.0.0

tesc · Accepted Answer

Hi, 
 Digging a little in the core specification, I found a description for "Local Name" in the core specification v5.0, Vol2, Part E, 6.23 Local Name: 
 "The Local Name configuration parameter is a UTF-8 encoded string." 
 That part is for BR/EDR, but the concept of local name is inherited by BLE, which means the character encoding should probably be the same. 
 The CSS Part A 1.2 Local Name states: 
 "if the name is shortened, the complete name can be read (...) by reading the device name characteristic after the connection has been established using GATT." 
 According to the Device Name Characteristic Specification the format is utf8s, i.e. a UTF-8 encoded string . 
 So although the character encoding for the local name advertising data types is not explicitly stated, it is pretty clear from context that the intended encoding is UTF-8. 
 Regards, Terje

BLE advert local name character set

Top Replies