The S140 version 6.1.0 SoftDevice full support for S=2 (500 kbps).

[mjkranz]

3 months ago Nordic stated the following

The S140 version 6.0.0 SoftDevice does not have full support for S=2 (500 kbps). The application cannot select S=2, so all packets are transmitted using S=8 when Coded PHY is used. However, the nRF can receive both S=2 and S=8 coded packets from the peer.

My question is about S140 version 6.1.0 softdevice. Do we have the capability yet to advertise on both S=2 and S=8 now that this version release notes says:

The LE Advertising Extensions and LE Long Range (LE Coded PHY) features are Bluetooth Qualified in this production release and
can be used in end products.

How do we configure the system to advertise with coded phy at 500 KBps. I do not see a type enumeration for this option yet.

Since we can scan and receive both S=2 and S=8 packets I want to be able to switch back and forth from s=2 and s=8 on the advertise side to see range variations in my real world testing.

Sincerely Mark

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi Mark,

Version 6.1.0 has the same limitation as version 6.0.0, and does not support transmitting using S=2.

[mjkranz]

Does nordic plan on adding transmitting s=2 coded advertisements?

If so any idea when approximately?

[Einar Thorsrud]

There are no immediate plans as far as I know, but I will create an internal feature request so that the SoftDevice team are aware that it is a desired feature.

[mjkranz]

Let me give you more info then as to the need.

We have discovered that the 1 MBPs setting is low on range and obviously doesn't do any error correction and that the 125KBit coded s=8 data rate gets us longer range than we need but power consumption is a little high. We predict that the 500 KBit rate will give us sufficient error correction capabilities and acceptable range at a low enough power consumption for our application.

If we are forced to advertise at 125KBit we will have to use shorter packets and only advertise on 1 channel every 2.5 seconds.

If we can use the 500 KBit s=2 rate then we can use slightly longer packets and advertise on all 3 channels and still hit our power budget with a beacon every 2.5 seconds.

There is a definite need for the 500KBit rate.

Any input as to an estimate of availability would be great.

[Einar Thorsrud]

I have attached your use case to the internal feature request. Unfortunately, I do not have any details of when transmitting with S=2 encoding will be supported at this point in time.