BLE 5.2 Broadcast Isochronous Groups (BIG) and Broadcast Isochronous Streams (BIS)

[Fjot]

Does Nordic have an example SW for transmitting and receiving data in BLE 5.2 connectionless isochronous communication mode? Is there a SoftDevice that would support this mode of communication?

[haakonsh]

Does Nordic have an example SW for transmitting and receiving data in BLE 5.2 connectionless isochronous communication mode?

 Not yet.

Is there a SoftDevice that would support this mode of communication?

 Most likely you will need to use Zephyr + a Nordic BLE Controller. But I don't believe we have any support for it just yet, we're waiting for finalization of the LE Audio spec. 

[Fjot]

Is it a right assumption that the example SW and LE Audio support in a SoftDevice will be available once the Nordic LE Audio kit (https://www.nordicsemi.com/News/2020/01/Nordic-launches-a-Bluetooth-LE-Audio-Evaluation-Platform) is shipping?

[haakonsh]

We're already shipping that eval kit to selected customers, but I'm not sure it supports the LE Audio specification.

We've scheduled to ship the new nRF53-based eval kit for LE Audio in Q1. 

[Fjot]

Ok, but e.g. nRF52833 and nRF52832 are advertised as "Bluetooth 5.2 SoC". What is there currently present, that could be used to implement BIG / BIS communication? The v5.2 core spec specifies e.g. HCI commands for BIG (HCI_LE_Create_BIG).

I know that Nordic does not implement HCI as such, but exposes its own API via SoftDevice. As I haven't found anything on existing SoftDevices, that would enable forming BIG's and streaming data over BIS's, will that (SoftDevice) be available with the new nRF53-based eval kit?

[haakonsh]

We' don't have anything publicly available atm, we're working on these features in the nRF Connect SDK as we speak. I believe we'll have to wait for the launch of the LE Eval kit.

[Cintelex]

Hi haakonsh. Do you have an update on when the new nRF53-based eval kit for LE Audio will be available, as you mentioned in the previous response? Is it still scheduled for Q1 (and does "Q1" mean end of March 2021) ?

Also, what do you expect to be included with this kit? I know that Nordic has licensed the LC3 codec from T2 Software, so will this be included? Will it also contain all necessary host & controller support for isochronous channels to carry audio? If so, is this both broadcast (BIG/BIS) and 2-way connection-oriented (CIG/CIS)?