WIFI/BLE Simultaneously

[Ritesh]

What exactly means 'switching between WF and BT' ?
You mean switching context? They use same host controller or something? This could be solved with different stack architecture.

Again, this is not a software issue. The ESP32 only has one radio and only one antenna. This radio and antenna, if viewed in a somewhat simplified fashion, can be used for one of six things: send a WiFi packet, send a BT packet, listen for a WiFi packet, listen for a BT packet, receive a WiFi packet, receive a BT packet. I think we actually do some magic that allows us to listen for BT and WiFi packets at the same time in some circumstances, but in general, we're limited to doing only one of these things. To get around this, we would need a separate radio and antenna, something which is not in the current ESP32. No software hacks can change this, because it's a hardware limitation, not a software one.

Hi,

I agree in your point like there is some hardware limitation in which both WiFi and Bluetooth can not be operated at a time but with some workaround into software stack we can do something like that to operate both simultaneously with some hooks of software so that in real it can be considered as both working simultaneously.

[ESP_Sprite]

I agree in your point like there is some hardware limitation in which both WiFi and Bluetooth can not be operated at a time but with some workaround into software stack we can do something like that to operate both simultaneously with some hooks of software so that in real it can be considered as both working simultaneously.

Yes, and we have implemented this as 'WiFi/BT coexistence'. However, because of these hardware limitations, 'faking' two radios is only possible with loss of performance, which was the reason this topic was started in the first place.

[nrcrast]

Ok, so it sounds like BT and Wifi aren't going to work together harmoniously.

Is there a way to even the playing field a little bit more? Right now it seems like Wifi is hogging everything up and BLE is starving. Is it possible to limit/throttle the Wifi in such a way that the BLE has more time?

-Nick

[Ritesh]

I agree in your point like there is some hardware limitation in which both WiFi and Bluetooth can not be operated at a time but with some workaround into software stack we can do something like that to operate both simultaneously with some hooks of software so that in real it can be considered as both working simultaneously.

Yes, and we have implemented this as 'WiFi/BT coexistence'. However, because of these hardware limitations, 'faking' two radios is only possible with loss of performance, which was the reason this topic was started in the first place.

Hi,

Do you have any statistical results or data like how many loss of performance you are getting with your example if you have implemented before as part of WiFi and BT coexistence?

So, It will be beneficial for us to have that kind of information before to go with that.

[Deouss]

Do you think it is possible to change the board reference design a bit to have two separate antennas for BT and WiFi ?
Or somehow separate those two channels physically?
I saw boards with ipex connectors. What would be the case here?

[Pcborges]

Hi, I dropped ESP32 BT altogether and attached an HC-06 and my project is running great including BT pin security connection code (PIN number) which does not work on the ESP32 BT.

Hope it helps.
Paulo

[nrcrast]

I agree in your point like there is some hardware limitation in which both WiFi and Bluetooth can not be operated at a time but with some workaround into software stack we can do something like that to operate both simultaneously with some hooks of software so that in real it can be considered as both working simultaneously.

Yes, and we have implemented this as 'WiFi/BT coexistence'. However, because of these hardware limitations, 'faking' two radios is only possible with loss of performance, which was the reason this topic was started in the first place.

I've got some logic in now to disable Wifi when BLE is connected, essentially giving BLE higher priority. It seems to work well.

[Ritesh]

I agree in your point like there is some hardware limitation in which both WiFi and Bluetooth can not be operated at a time but with some workaround into software stack we can do something like that to operate both simultaneously with some hooks of software so that in real it can be considered as both working simultaneously.

Yes, and we have implemented this as 'WiFi/BT coexistence'. However, because of these hardware limitations, 'faking' two radios is only possible with loss of performance, which was the reason this topic was started in the first place.

I've got some logic in now to disable Wifi when BLE is connected, essentially giving BLE higher priority. It seems to work well.

Great,

Would you please share code as well which will be helpful to others?

[ESP_Sprite]

Do you think it is possible to change the board reference design a bit to have two separate antennas for BT and WiFi ?
Or somehow separate those two channels physically?
I saw boards with ipex connectors. What would be the case here?

No, it is not, because it's not only the antenna that is shared; the RF circuits that drive the antenna, do the decoding etc are also shared and those are in the ESP32 itself.

[Ritesh]

Do you think it is possible to change the board reference design a bit to have two separate antennas for BT and WiFi ?
Or somehow separate those two channels physically?
I saw boards with ipex connectors. What would be the case here?

No, it is not, because it's not only the antenna that is shared; the RF circuits that drive the antenna, do the decoding etc are also shared and those are in the ESP32 itself.

That means from Hardware side it can not be doable to provide dual WiFi a d Ethernet support. Correct?

If so then we can provide support for that from software side means from stack and application side only.