Bluetooth: Direct Test Mode

This sample enables the Direct Test Mode functions described in Bluetooth® Core Specification (Vol. 6, Part F).

Requirements

The sample supports the following development kits:

Hardware platforms	PCA	Board name	Board target	Shields
nRF54L15 PDK	PCA10156	nrf54l15pdk	nrf54l15pdk/nrf54l15/cpuapp
nRF54L15 DK	PCA10156	nrf54l15dk	nrf54l15dk/nrf54l15/cpuapp
nRF54H20 DK	PCA10175	nrf54h20dk	nrf54h20dk/nrf54h20/cpurad
nRF5340 DK	PCA10095	nrf5340dk	nrf5340dk/nrf5340/cpunet	nrf21540ek
nRF52840 DK	PCA10056	nrf52840dk	nrf52840dk/nrf52840
nRF21540 DK	PCA10112	nrf21540dk	nrf21540dk/nrf52840

Additionally, the sample requires one of the following testing devices:

• Dedicated test equipment, like an Anritsu MT8852 tester. See Testing with a certified tester.

• Another development kit with the same sample. See Testing with another development kit.

• A computer with the Direct Test Mode app available in the nRF Connect for Desktop. See Testing with nRF Connect for Desktop.

Overview

The sample uses Direct Test Mode (DTM) to test the operation of the following features of the radio:

• Transmission power and receiver sensitivity

• Frequency offset and drift

• Modulation characteristics

• Packet error rate

• Intermodulation performance

Test procedures are defined in the document Bluetooth® Low Energy RF PHY Test Specification: Document number RF-PHY.TS.p15

You can carry out conformance tests using dedicated test equipment, such as the Anritsu MT8852 or similar, with an nRF5 running the DTM sample set as device under test (DUT).

Implementation

The DTM sample includes two parts:

• The Direct Test Mode library that manages the nRF radio and controls the standard DTM procedures.

• A sample that provides an external interface to the library.

You can find the source code of both parts in samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode/src. If you use the experimental HCI interface on the nRF5340 DK board (PCA10095), you can find additional source code in samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode/remote_hci/src and samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode/rpc.

This sample contains a driver for a 2-wire UART interface and an experimental HCI UART interface. Unless otherwise stated, all following commands and references describe the 2-wire interface. The 2-wire driver maps two-octet commands and events to the DTM library, as specified by the Bluetooth Low Energy DTM specification. The HCI driver accepts HCI commands in H4 format and implements a minimal set of HCI commands usually sufficient to run DTM testing.

The implementation is self-contained and requires no Bluetooth Low Energy protocol stack for its operation. The MPU is initialized in the standard way. The DTM library function dtm_init() configures all interrupts, timers, and the radio.

This sample may be extended with other interface implementations, such as an HCI interface, USB, or another interface required by the Upper Tester. The extension should be done by adding an appropriate interface implementation in the transport directory. The transports must conform to the interface specified in the transport/dtm_transport.h file.

The interface to the Lower Tester uses the antenna connector of the chosen development kit. While in principle an aerial connection might be used, conformance tests cover the reading of the transmission power delivered by the DUT. For this reason, a coaxial connection between the DUT and the Lower Tester is employed for all conformance testing.

DTM module interface

The DTM module interface can be divided into the following three parts:

• The dtm_init() initialization function

• Setup functions:

  • dtm_setup_reset()

  • dtm_setup_set_phy()

  • dtm_setup_set_modulation()

  • dtm_setup_read_features()

  • dtm_setup_read_max_supported_value()

  • dtm_setup_set_cte_mode()

  • dtm_setup_set_cte_slot()

  • dtm_setup_set_antenna_params()

  • dtm_setup_set_transmit_power()

• Test functions:

  • dtm_test_receive()

  • dtm_test_transmit()

  • dtm_test_end()

The setup functions implement the DTM setup required by the Bluetooth Low Energy standard. The test functions implement the tests defined by the Bluetooth Low Energy standard.

The sample is required to perform the following tasks:

• To parse the relevant encoding format - UART or HCI - for the command, and to use the DTM module interface accordingly.

• To interpret the return values of interface functions used in the DTM module, and to respond to the tester in the correct format.

Supported PHYs

The DTM sample supports all four PHYs specified in DTM, but not all devices support all the PHYs.

Supported PHYs

PHY	nRF5340
LE 1M	Yes
LE 2M	Yes
LE Coded S=8	Yes
LE Coded S=2	Yes

TX output power

This sample has several ways to set the device output power. The behavior of the commands vary depending on the hardware configuration and Kconfig options as follows:

• DTM without front-end module support:

  • The official 0x09 DTM command sets the SoC TX output power closest to the requested one when the exact power level is not supported.

  • The SET_TX_POWER vendor-specific command sets the SoC TX output power. You must use only the TX power values supported by your SoC. See the actual values in the SoC Product Specification.

• DTM with front-end module support:

  • When the CONFIG_DTM_POWER_CONTROL_AUTOMATIC Kconfig option is enabled (default), the official 0x09 DTM command sets the final output power to the desired, or the closest available value by configuring the SoC output power and the front-end module gain automatically.

    Note

    The returned output power using this command is valid only for channel 0. If you perform the test on a different channel than the real output power measured by your tester device, it can be equal or less than the returned one. This is because the DTM specification has a limitation when it assumes that output power is the same for all channels. That is why the chosen output power might not be available for the given channel.

  • When the CONFIG_DTM_POWER_CONTROL_AUTOMATIC Kconfig option is disabled, the official 0x09 DTM command sets only the SoC output power. These commands behave in the same way for the DTM without front-end module support. Additionally, you can use following vendor-specific commands:

    • The SET_TX_POWER command sets the SoC TX output power.

    • The FEM_TX_POWER_CONTROL_SET command sets the front-end module gain.

Bluetooth Direction Finding support

The DTM sample supports all Bluetooth Direction Finding modes specified in DTM.

Supported Bluetooth Direction Finding modes

Direction Finding mode	nRF5340
AoD 1 us slot	Yes
AoD 2 us slot	Yes
AoA	Yes

The following antenna switching patterns are possible:

• 1, 2, 3, …, N

• 1, 2, 3, …, N, N - 1, N - 2, …, 1

The application supports a maximum of 19 antennas in the direction finding mode. The radio can control up to eight GPIO pins for the purpose of controlling the external antenna switches used in direction finding.

Antenna matrix configuration

To use this sample to test the Bluetooth Direction Finding feature, additional configuration of GPIOs is required to control the antenna array. An example of such configuration is provided in a devicetree overlay file nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpunet.overlay.

The overlay file provides the information about of the GPIOs to be used by the Radio peripheral to switch between antenna patches during the Constant Tone Extension (CTE) reception or transmission. At least one GPIO must be provided to enable antenna switching.

The GPIOs are used by the radio peripheral in the order provided by the dfegpio#-gpios properties. The order is important because it has an impact to the mapping of the antenna switching patterns to GPIOs (see Antenna patterns).

To test Direction Finding, provide the following data related to antenna matrix design:

• GPIO pins to dfegpio#-gpios properties in the nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpunet.overlay file.

• The default antenna to be used to receive the PDU dfe-pdu-antenna property in the nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpunet.overlay file.

Note

The PDU antenna is also used for the reference period transmission and reception.

Antenna patterns

The antenna switching pattern is a binary number where each bit is applied to a particular antenna GPIO pin. For example, the pattern 0x3 means that antenna GPIOs at index 0,1 is set, while the next ones are left unset.

This also means that, for example, when using four GPIOs, the pattern count cannot be greater than 16 and the maximum allowed value is 15.

If the number of switch-sample periods is greater than the number of stored switching patterns, the radio loops back to the first pattern.

The following table presents the patterns that you can use to switch antennas on the Nordic-designed antenna matrix:

Antenna	PATTERN[3:0]
ANT_12	0 (0b0000)
ANT_10	1 (0b0001)
ANT_11	2 (0b0010)
RFU	3 (0b0011)
ANT_3	4 (0b0100)
ANT_1	5 (0b0101)
ANT_2	6 (0b0110)
RFU	7 (0b0111)
ANT_6	8 (0b1000)
ANT_4	9 (0b1001)
ANT_5	10 (0b1010)
RFU	11 (0b1011)
ANT_9	12 (0b1100)
ANT_7	13 (0b1101)
ANT_8	14 (0b1110)
RFU	15 (0b1111)

nRF21540 front-end module

You can add support for the nRF21540 front-end module (FEM) to the sample.

To add support for the nRF21540 FEM, build the sample for a board containing nRF21540 FEM like nrf21540dk/nrf52840 or create a devicetree overlay file describing how FEM is connected to nRF5 SoC in your device.

Note

If you use the nRF21540 EK, append nrf21540ek shield to your build command instructing build system to append the appropriate devicetree overlay file. If you use the nRF21540 DK, build your application for the nrf21540dk/nrf52840 board target. The devicetree for the nRF21540 DK already contains the required FEM configuration, so you do not need to set an additional build option.

For example, to build the sample from the command line for an nRF5340 DK with an attached nRF21540 EK, invoke the following command within the sample directory:

west build -b nrf5340dk/nrf5340/cpunet -- -DSHIELD=nrf21540ek

For more details refer to the following documentation:

• Developing with Front-End Modules

• MPSL FEM-only configuration

• Enabling GPIO+SPI mode support for nRF21540

• Developing with the nRF21540 EK

You can configure the transmitted power gain, antenna output and activation delay in nRF21540 using vendor-specific commands, see Vendor-specific packet payload.

Skyworks front-end module

The Skyworks SKY66114 and SKY66403 are front-end module (FEM) devices that support the 2-pin PA/LNA interface. You can also use other Skyworks FEM devices that provide the same hardware interface.

To use the generic FEM implementation with Skyworks front-end modules refer to Enabling support for front-end modules using Simple GPIO interface for details.

Use case of incomplete physical connections to the FEM module

The devicetree configuration allows you to use a minimal pin configuration. Connect all unused pins to the fixed logic level as instructed in the official documentation. For example, csd-gpios is an optional pin that sets the device into sleep mode. If this pin is not controlled by the driver, it must be connected to the fixed logic level.

You can configure the antenna output and activation delay for the Skyworks front-end module (FEM) using vendor-specific commands, see Vendor-specific packet payload.

Vendor-specific packet payload

The Bluetooth Low Energy 2-wire UART DTM interface standard reserves the Packet Type, also called payload parameter, with binary value 11 for a Vendor Specific packet payload.

The DTM command is interpreted as vendor-specific when both of the following conditions are met:

• Its CMD field is set to Transmitter Test, binary 10.

• Its PKT field is set to vendor-specific, binary 11.

Vendor-specific commands can be divided into different categories as follows:

• If the Length field is set to 0 (symbol CARRIER_TEST), an unmodulated carrier is turned on at the channel indicated by the Frequency field. It remains turned on until a TEST_END or RESET command is issued.

• If the Length field is set to 1 (symbol CARRIER_TEST_STUDIO), the field value is used by the nRFgo Studio to indicate that an unmodulated carrier is turned on at the channel. It remains turned on until a TEST_END or RESET command is issued.

• If the Length field is set 2 (symbol SET_TX_POWER), the Frequency field sets the TX power in dBm. The valid TX power values are specified in the product specification ranging from -40 to +4, where 0 dBm is the reset value. Only the six least significant bits will fit in the Length field. The two most significant bits are calculated by the DTM module. This is possible because the six least significant bits of all valid TX power values are unique. The TX power can be modified only when no Transmitter Test or Receiver Test is running.

• If the Length field is set to 3 (symbol FEM_ANTENNA_SELECT), the Frequency field sets the front-end module (FEM) antenna output. The valid values are:

  • 0 - ANT1 enabled, ANT2 disabled

  • 1 - ANT1 disabled, ANT2 enabled

• If the Length field is set to 4 (symbol FEM_TX_POWER_CONTROL_SET), the Frequency field sets the front-end module (FEM) TX power control value and is specific to the FEM type in use. The valid gain values are specified in your product-specific front-end module (FEM). For example, in the nRF21540 front-end module with GPIO interface, the tx power control range is 0 (POUTA) to 1 (POUTB). For example, in the nRF21540 front-end module with GPIO/SPI, the tx power control range is 0 - 31 and is the value of TX_GAIN field of CONFREG0 register.

• If the Length field is set to 5 (symbol FEM_ACTIVE_DELAY_SET), the Frequency field sets the front-end module (FEM) activation delay in microseconds relative to the radio start. By default, this value is set to radio ramp-up time - front-end module (FEM) TX/RX settling time.

• If the Length field is set to 6 (symbol FEM_DEFAULT_PARAMS_SET) and the Frequency field to any value, the front-end module parameters, such as antenna output, gain, and delay, are set to their default values.

• All other values of Frequency and Length field are reserved.

Note

Front-end module configuration parameters, such as antenna output, gain, and active delay, are not set to their default values after the DTM reset command. Testers, for example Anritsu MT8852, issue a reset command at the beginning of every test. Therefore, you cannot run automated test scripts for front-end modules with other than the default parameters.

If you have changed the default parameters of the front-end module, you can restore them. You can either send the FEM_DEFAULT_PARAMS_SET command or power cycle the front-end module.

Note

When you build the DTM sample with support for front-end modules and the CONFIG_DTM_POWER_CONTROL_AUTOMATIC Kconfig option is enabled, the following vendor-specific command are not available:

• SET_TX_POWER

• FEM_TX_POWER_CONTROL_SET

You can disable the CONFIG_DTM_POWER_CONTROL_AUTOMATIC Kconfig option if you want to set the SoC output power and the front-end module gain by separate commands. The official DTM command 0x09 for setting power level takes into account the SoC output power and the front-end module gain to set the total requested output power.

The DTM-to-Serial adaptation layer

The dtm_uart_twowire.c file is an implementation of the UART interface specified in the Bluetooth Core Specification, Volume 6, Part F, Chapter 3.

The dtm_hci.c and hci_uart.c files are an implementation of the HCI UART interface specified in the Bluetooth Core Specification, Volume 4, Part A (the flow control can be configured by an overlay file).

The default selection of UART pins is defined in zephyr/boards/arm/board_name/board_name.dts. You can change the defaults using the symbols tx-pin and rx-pin in the DTS overlay file of the child image at the project level. The configuration files for the nRF5340: Remote IPC shell subimage are located in the child_image/remote_shell or sysbuild/remote_shell directory. The HCI interface allows for a custom remote_hci image to be used with nRF5340 DK board (PCA10095).

Note

On the nRF5340 development kit, the physical UART interface of the application core is used for communication with the tester device. This sample uses the IPC UART driver for sending responses and receiving commands through the UART interface of the application core.

Debugging

In this sample, the UART console is used to exchange commands and events defined in the DTM specification. Debug messages are not displayed in the UART console. Instead, they are printed by the RTT logger.

If you want to view the debug messages, follow the procedure in Testing and optimization. For more information about debugging in the nRF Connect SDK, see Debugging an application.

Configuration

See Configuring and building for information about how to permanently or temporarily change the configuration.

Configuration options

The following configuration parameters are associated with this sample:

CONFIG_DTM_POWER_CONTROL_AUTOMATIC - Automatic power control

Sets the SoC output power and the front-end module gain to achieve the TX output power requested by the user. If the exact value cannot be achieved, power is set to the closest possible value. If this option is disabled, you can set the SoC output power and the front-end module gain with the separate vendor-specific commands.

Building and running

This sample can be found under samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode in the nRF Connect SDK folder structure.

To build the sample, follow the instructions in Building an application for your preferred building environment. See also Programming an application for programming steps and Testing and optimization for general information about testing and debugging in the nRF Connect SDK.

Note

When building repository applications in the SDK repositories, building with sysbuild is enabled by default. If you work with out-of-tree freestanding applications, you need to manually pass the --sysbuild parameter to every build command or configure west to always use it.

Note

Programming the nRF54H20 SoC can sometimes fail due to conflicts in the resource configuration. This can happen if, for example, an application programmed to the nRF54H20 SoC configured the UICRs for one or more cores in a way that is incompatible with the configuration required by the application you are trying to program on the SoC.

To fix this error and erase the UICR for the application core, run the following command:

nrfutil device recover --core Application

If your sample also uses the radio core, you must also erase the UICRs for the radio core. To erase the UICR for the radio core, run the following command:

nrfutil device recover --core Network

For more information on the command, run:

nrfutil device recover --help

You can then run west flash to program your application.

Note

On the nRF5340 development kit, this sample requires the nRF5340: Remote IPC shell sample on the application core. The Remote IPC shell sample is built and programmed automatically by default.

Disabling Direction Finding feature

To build the sample without support for the Direction Finding feature, use the following command for the correct board_target:

west build samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode -b board_target -- -DSB_CONFIG_DTM_NO_DFE=y

Experimental HCI interface

To build the sample with an HCI interface, use the following command for the correct board_target:

west build samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode -b board_target -- -DFILE_SUFFIX=hci

On the nRF5340 DK board (PCA10095), you can build the sample with HCI interface with the remote_hci image using the same command.

USB CDC ACM transport variant

On the nRF5340 development kit, you can build this sample configured to use the USB interface as a communication interface with the tester. Use the following command:

west build samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode -b nrf5340dk/nrf5340/cpunet -- -DFILE_SUFFIX=usb

You can also build this sample with support for the front-end module. Use the following command:

west build samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode -b nrf5340dk/nrf5340/cpunet -- -DSHIELD=nrf21540ek -DFILE_SUFFIX=usb

Testing

After programming the sample to your development kit, you can test it in three ways, as described in the following chapters.

Note

For the nRF5340 DK board (PCA10095), see Getting logging output with nRF5340 DK for information about the COM terminals on which the logging output is available.

Note

When using the nRF54H20 DK Engineering B (from v0.8.0 to 0.8.2), you must build samples and applications using the board revision 0.8.0 with the <board>@<revision> syntax. For example, nrf54h20dk@0.8.0/nrf54h20/cpuapp when building for the application core, or nrf54h20dk@0.8.0/nrf54h20/cpurad when building for the radio core.

Testing with a certified tester

Conformance testing is performed using a certified tester. The setup depends on the tester used, and details about the test operation must be found in the tester documentation.

The Application note nAN34 describes two alternatives for setting up a production test with DTM using one of our old devices.

Testing with another development kit

1. Connect both development kits to the computer using a USB cable. The computer assigns to the development kit a COM port on Windows or a ttyACM device on Linux, which is visible in the Device Manager.

2. Connect to both kits with a terminal emulator. See Direct Test Mode terminal connection for the required settings.

3. Start TRANSMITTER_TEST by sending the 0x80 0x96 DTM command to one of the connected development kits. This command will trigger TX activity on the 2402 MHz frequency (1st channel) with 10101010 packet pattern and 37-byte packet length.

4. Observe that you received the TEST_STATUS_EVENT packet in response with the SUCCESS status field: 0x00 0x00.

5. Start RECEIVER_TEST by sending the 0x40 0x96 DTM command to the second development kit. Command parameters are identical to the ones used for the TRANSMITTER_TEST command.

6. Observe that you received the TEST_STATUS_EVENT packet in response with the SUCCESS status field: 0x00 0x00.

7. Finish RX testing using the TEST_END DTM command by sending the 0xC0 0x00 packet.

8. Observe that you received the PACKET_REPORTING_EVENT packet in response. For example, the 0xD6 0xAC message indicates that 22188 Radio packets have been received.

9. Experiment with other combinations of commands and their parameters.

Testing with nRF Connect for Desktop

1. Connect the kit to the computer using a USB cable. The kit is assigned a COM port (Windows) or ttyACM device (Linux), which is visible in the Device Manager.

2. Connect the kit with a terminal emulator that supports encoding and decoding in the HEX format. See Direct Test Mode terminal connection for the required settings.

3. Start the TRANSMITTER_TEST by sending the 0x80 0x96 DTM command to the connected development kit. This command triggers TX activity on 2402 MHz frequency (1st channel) with 10101010 packet pattern and 37-byte packet length.

4. Observe that you received the TEST_STATUS_EVENT packet in response with the SUCCESS status field: 0x00 0x00.

5. Start the Direct Test Mode app in nRF Connect for Desktop and select the development kit to communicate with.

6. Set the Receiver mode and 37th channel in the test configuration menu.

7. Start the test.

8. On the application chart, observe that the number of RX packets is increasing for the 2402 MHz channel.

9. Stop the test.

10. Swap roles. Set the application to the RX mode and the connected development kit to the TX mode.

Direct Test Mode terminal connection

To send commands to and receive responses from the development kit that runs the Direct Test Mode sample, connect to it with RealTerm in Windows or Minicom in Linux.

The Bluetooth Low Energy DTM UART interface standard specifies the following configuration:

• Eight data bits

• No parity

• One stop bit

• No hardware flow control

• A selection of bit rates from 9600 to 1000000, one of which must be supported by the DUT. It might be possible to run other bit rates by experimenting with parameters.

Note

The default bit rate of the DTM UART driver is 19200 bps, which is supported by most certified testers.

When using a 2-wire interface, you must send all commands as two-byte HEX numbers. The responses must have the same format.

Connect with RealTerm (Windows)

The RealTerm terminal program offers a graphical interface for setting up your connection.

The RealTerm start window

To test DTM with RealTerm, complete the following steps:

1. On the Display tab, set Display As to Hex[space].

   

2. Open the Port tab and configure the serial port parameters:

   1. Set the Baud to 19200 (1).

   2. Select your J-Link serial port from the Port list (2).

   3. Set the port status to Open (3).

   

3. Open the Send tab:

   1. Write the command as a hexadecimal number in the field (1). For example, write 0x00 0x00 to send a Reset command.

   2. Click the Send Numbers button (2) to send the command.

   3. Observe the response in the DTM in area (3). The response is encoded as hexadecimal numbers.

   

Connect with Minicom (Linux)

Minicom is a serial communication program that connects to the DTM device.

On the Linux operating system, install a Minicom terminal. On Ubuntu, run:

sudo apt-get install minicom

1. Run the Minicom terminal:

   sudo minicom -D DTM serial port -s

   For example:

   sudo minicom -D /dev/serial/by-id/usb-SEGGER_J-Link_000683580193-if00 -s
   

   The -s option switches you to Minicom setup mode.

2. Configure the Minicom terminal:

   

   Configuration window

   1. Select Serial port setup and set UART baudrate to 19200.

      

   2. Select Screen and keyboard and press S on the keyboard to enable the Hex Display.

   3. Press Q on the keyboard to enable Local echo.

      

   Minicom is now configured for receiving data. However, you cannot use it for sending DTM commands.

3. Send DTM commands:

   To send DTM commands, use echo with -ne options in another terminal. You must encode the data as hexadecimal numbers (xHH, byte with hexadecimal value HH, 1 to 2 digits).

   sudo echo -ne "encoded command" > DTM serial port

   To send a Reset command, for example, run the following command:

   sudo echo -ne "\x00\x00" > /dev/serial/by-id/usb-SEGGER_J-Link_000683580193-if00
   

Dependencies

This sample uses the following nRF Connect SDK library:

• FEM abstraction layer

This sample uses the following nRF Connect SDK driver:

• IPC UART driver

This sample has the following nrfx dependencies:

• nrfx/drivers/include/nrfx_timer.h

• nrfx/hal/nrf_nvmc.h

• nrfx/hal/nrf_radio.h

• nrfx/helpers/nrfx_gppi.h

The sample also has the following nrfxlib dependency:

• Front-end module feature

In addition, it has the following Zephyr dependencies:

• Device Driver Model:

  • drivers/clock_control.h

  • drivers/uart.h