Tether internet connection directly from smartphone over bluetooth?

RE: Tether internet connection directly from smartphone over bluetooth?

Simonr — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 08:06:31 GMT

Yes, using Bluetooth Low Energy as a "gateway" to connect to the internet is generally a bad idea. But you're of course welcome to try if you'd like (it could work using the 2Mbps PHY available in BLE5 for all I know), in which case the nRF52840 DK would be a good place to start development. We don't have any example code doing something like this though. You'd have to start out with something like our ble_app_template example and work your way up from there. I'd still recommend using Bluetooth classic though, as the 2Mbps mode in BLE effectively has a throughput of ~1300kbps maximum (that's bits, not bytes).

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Tether internet connection directly from smartphone over bluetooth?

Jon — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 15:03:20 GMT

Apologies Simon, I didn't mention my data rate - it's actually small, so the 1mb-2mb throughput would be more than sufficient for me.

Is this still only feasible with classic?

Many thanks for your reply!

RE: Tether internet connection directly from smartphone over bluetooth?

Simonr — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 12:24:05 GMT

Hi Jon

A Bluetooth Low Energy product will not have the data rate for something like this to be feasible. I suggest you check out any Bluetooth Classic devices, which we here at Nordic Semiconductor do not provide. Maybe you'd get a better idea of what you need from reading this BLE vs. Bluetooth Classic comparison.

Best regards,

Simon