.. _ipc_radio:

IPC radio firmware
##################

.. contents::
   :local:
   :depth: 2

The IPC radio firmware allows to use the radio peripheral from another core in a multicore device.

Application overview
********************

You can use this firmware as a general serialized radio peripheral.

The firmware supports both Bluetooth® Low Energy and IEEE 802.15.4 simultaneously.
In addition, you can configure the Bluetooth selection as an HCI :ref:`bluetooth_controller` or an RPC serialization interface (:ref:`ble_rpc`).

HCI IPC serialization
=====================

The firmware exposes the :ref:`bluetooth_controller` support to another core using the IPC subsystem.

Host for nRF RPC Bluetooth Low Energy
=====================================

The firmware is running the full Bluetooth Low Energy stack.
It receives serialized function calls that it decodes and executes, then sends response data to the client.

The serialization includes:

* :ref:`bt_gap`
* :ref:`bluetooth_connection_mgmt`
* :ref:`bt_gatt`
* :ref:`Bluetooth Cryptography <bt_crypto>`

IEEE 802.15.4
=============

The firmware exposes radio driver support to another core using the IPC subsystem.

Requirements
************

The firmware supports the following development kits:

.. table-from-sample-yaml::

To automatically attach the firmware image, you need to use Zephyr's :ref:`zephyr:sysbuild`.

The |nRFVSC| supports sysbuild during `build configuration setup <How to build an application_>`_.
To learn more about sysbuild in the extension, see `sysbuild support`_ page in its documentation.

Configuration
*************

|config|

Application
===========

You can set the supported radio configurations using the following Kconfig options:

* :kconfig:option:`CONFIG_IPC_RADIO_BT` - For the Bluetooth Low Energy serialization.
* :kconfig:option:`CONFIG_IPC_RADIO_802154` - For the IEEE 802.15.4 serialization.

You can select the Bluetooth Low Energy serialization using the :kconfig:option:`CONFIG_IPC_RADIO_BT_SER` Kconfig option.

The Bluetooth Low Energy and IEEE 802.15.4 functionalities can operate simultaneously and are only limited by available memory.

Sysbuild
========

To enable the firmware, use the Sysbuild configuration of :kconfig:option:`SB_CONFIG_NRF_DEFAULT_IPC_RADIO`.

You can set the supported radio configurations using the following (Sysbuild) Kconfig options:

* :kconfig:option:`SB_CONFIG_NETCORE_IPC_RADIO_BT_HCI_IPC`
* :kconfig:option:`SB_CONFIG_NETCORE_IPC_RADIO_BT_RPC`
* :kconfig:option:`SB_CONFIG_NETCORE_IPC_RADIO_IEEE802154`

Configuration files
===================

The application provides predefined configuration files for typical use cases.
You can find the configuration files in the application directory.

The following files are available:

* :file:`overlay-802154.conf` - Configuration file enabling IEEE 802.15.4.
* :file:`overlay-bt_hci_ipc.conf` - Configuration file enabling Bluetooth Low Energy over HCI.
* :file:`overlay-bt_rpc.conf` - Configuration file enabling Bluetooth Low Energy over RPC.

.. note::
   When you use sysbuild to build an application which uses the ipc_radio as network core image the preceding configuration files are added automatically to ipc_radio.
   The selection of specific configuration files is determined by the sysbuild kconfig.

   For instance the :kconfig:option:`SB_CONFIG_NETCORE_IPC_RADIO_IEEE802154` kconfig enables the :file:`overlay-802154.conf` configuration file to be used with ipc_radio.

Building and running as a single image
**************************************

.. |application path| replace:: :file:`applications/ipc_radio`

.. include:: /includes/application_build_and_run.txt

For instructions on how to enable a specific configuration overlay file, see :ref:`building_advanced`.

.. note::
   You cannot use :ref:`ble_rpc` together with the HCI :ref:`bluetooth_controller`.

Dependencies
************

The dependencies may vary according to the configuration.

This firmware can use the following |NCS| libraries:

* :ref:`softdevice_controller`
* :ref:`nrf_802154_sl`
* :ref:`mpsl`
* :ref:`ble_rpc`

It can use the following `sdk-nrfxlib`_ library:

* :ref:`nrfxlib:nrf_rpc`