Maximum BLE Throughput with IOS

This blog is to show the BLE throughput on difference users scenarios. I plan to show the maximum throughput on the real world, particular showing how fast the BLE communication with IOS devices.

I would use 2 x nRF52840 DK for the central and peripheral bi direction communication and print out the live throughput. After that, I would show that how to achieve the maximum of Bluetooth throughput on IOS.

BLE Throughput

Follow up the blog https://jimmywongiot.com/2019/12/15/how-to-set-the-bandwidth-on-ble-link-connection/, Nordic Softdevice can achieve up to 800Kbps on BLE 4.2 or 1.3Mbps on BLE 5.0.

Demo

Scenario 1

Requirement & Procedures

• nRF52840 DK x 2 (BLE Peripheral / Central)
• Bluetooth 5.0 (2Mbps)
• Sending 1MB data from either side
  

Data (1MB) is sending from peripheral to central

Data (1MB) is sending from Central to Peripheral

Scenario 2 (Connect with IOS)

Requirement:

nRF52840 DK (BLE Peripheral) + IOS (IPhone Max XS) [IOS 13.3.1]

By following Apple Bluetooth Development Guideline, https://developer.apple.com/accessories/Accessory-Design-Guidelines.pdf, I setup the demo to send data from device to IOS as below.

BLE 1Mbps

BLE 2Mbps

In Summary,

The maximum of BLE throughput with IOS is around 3xx kbps (1Mbps) and 6xx kbps (2Mbps)

For the IOS Bluetooth Development, you can refer to

https://developer.apple.com/accessories/Accessory-Design-Guidelines.pdf