What is nrfxlib/ble_controler?

[loquat]

I am evaluating the nRF Connect SDK for nRF5340.
Currently, nRF Connect SDK seems to use zephyr's open source stack as the BLE stack.

By the way, nrfxlib / ble_controller is placed in NordicPlayground.
This looks like the library version of SoftDevice.

What is nrfxlib / ble_controler?

How do you use it?

[Didrik Rokhaug]

Hi.

You can find documentation about the nRF BLE Controller here: https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrfxlib/ble_controller/README.html

 

This looks like the library version of SoftDevice.

 This is mostly correct. However, the BLE Controller is mostly the link layer, while we will use Zephyr's Bluetooth host layer (which has significant contributions from us as well).

However, note the box marked as important:

Best regards,

Didrik

[loquat]

I am porting my application from SDK15 base to Zephyr base.
The basic part is almost complete.
But I was using timeslotAPI. Zephyr does not have a Timeslot API.
I want to use ble_controller to use TimeslotAPI.
Can my wish come true?

[loquat]

You says.

1. nRF connect SDK not support nRF52xxx.
2. ble_controller not support nRF5340.(only supported by Zephyr open-software BLE-stack.)

ask again,
Is ble_controller, In what environment can it be used?

[Didrik Rokhaug]

loquat said:

nRF connect SDK not support nRF52xxx

 At the moment no, but we will start supporting at least some features on the nRF52 series in the future.

Note that this does not necessarily mean that nRF Connect SDK (NCS) applications does not work on the nRF52, just that we have not done much testing and therefore does not guarantee that everything works.

 

loquat said:

2. ble_controller not support nRF5340.(only supported by Zephyr open-software BLE-stack.)

 Again, for the moment, this is correct.

However, this will change in the near future. There are a couple of pull requests open that adds nRF53 support for the nRF BLE Controller:

https://github.com/NordicPlayground/nrfxlib/pull/117

https://github.com/NordicPlayground/fw-nrfconnect-nrf/pull/1595

[loquat]

OK.

Now, I am running my nrf_connect_SDK application on nRF52840.
But, it use open source BLE-stack.

Please tell me how to use ble_controller.(How to change BLE-stack from OSS to proprietary ble_controller.)

[Didrik Rokhaug]

If you add CONFIG_BT_LL_NRFXLIB (and make sure that CONFIG_BT_LL_SPLIT is not set), the application should use the ble_controller library in nrfxlib.