SoftDevice Controller

The SoftDevice Controller is an RTOS-agnostic library built for the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52 and nRF53 Series. It supports Bluetooth 5. The library utilizes services provided by the Multiprotocol Service Layer.

The SoftDevice Controller is distributed in different variants containing different features. Variants for the Arm Cortex-M4 processor are available as soft-float, softfp-float, and hard-float. Variants for the Arm Cortex-M33 processor are available as soft-float only.

Bluetooth LE feature support:

Peripheral-only

Central-only

Multirole

2 Mbps PHY

X

X

X

Advertiser

X

X

Slave

X

X

Scanner

X

X

Master

X

X

Data Length Extensions

X

X

X

Advertising Extensions

X

Periodic Advertising

X

Connectionless CTE Advertising

X

Connection CTE Response

X

Coded PHY (Long Range)

X

LE Power Control Request

X

X

X

Periodic Advertising Sync Transfer - Sender

X

Periodic Advertising Sync Transfer - Receiver

X

Sleep Clock Accuracy Updates

X

Periodic Advertising with Responses - Advertiser

X

Periodic Advertising with Responses - Scanner

X

Connected Isochronous Stream - Central

X

Connected Isochronous Stream - Peripheral

X

Isochronous Broadcaster

X

Synchronized Receiver

X

Note

The following limitations apply to the listed features:

  • For Connectionless CTE Advertising, angle of arrival (AoA) is supported, but angle of departure (AoD) is not.

  • For Connection CTE Response, angle of arrival (AoA) is supported, but angle of departure (AoD) is not.

  • For Periodic Advertising Sync Transfer - Receiver, only one sync transfer reception may be in progress at any one time per link.

  • For the Isochronous Channels features, nRF52820 and nRF52833 are the nRF52 Series devices that support encrypting and decrypting the Isochronous Channels packets.

Proprietary feature support:

Peripheral-only

Central-only

Multirole

Description

Low Latency Packet mode

X

Enables using connection intervals below 7.5 ms

QoS Conn Event Reports

X

X

X

Reports QoS for every connection event. The application can then set an adapted channel map to avoid busy channels.

QoS Channel Survey (experimental support)

X

X

Provides measurements of the energy levels on the Bluetooth LE channels. The application can then set an adapted channel map to avoid busy channels.

Note

Low Latency Packet mode is not supported on the nRF53 Series.

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