Packetcraft Delivers Bluetooth Software Enabling Channel Sounding to Early Access Licensees

Channel Sounding is set to deliver high-accuracy distance measurement for secure access, location-based services and asset tracking in automotive + IoT markets

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, USA, May 1, 2024 -- Packetcraft®, a global leader with production-ready embedded Bluetooth® LE stacks and software enabling over a billion devices, today announces early-access availability of link layer software supporting the draft specification for Bluetooth® Channel Sounding. Semiconductor companies that have already received delivery are accelerating their time-to-market with Packetcraft’s latest link layer software which has been validated with the Ellisys Bluetooth Qualifier (EBQ).

“Packetcraft has been a long-time valued partner of Ellisys complementing our early investments into the latest Bluetooth features,” said Chuck Trefts, GM of US Operations at Ellisys. “The Ellisys Bluetooth Qualifier (EBQ) is the industry's first and most advanced Bluetooth controller qualification tester supporting all Bluetooth 5 low energy and BR/EDR qualification tests including the emerging Channel Sounding feature.”

To help educate and inform the Bluetooth technical community on this advanced new feature, Packetcraft has made a complete protocol analyzer trace available for download capturing a Channel Sounding over-the-air procedure between the Packetcraft platform and Ellisys EBQ. Further, Packetcraft has released a blog series that takes a deeper look into Channel Sounding with Part 1 being released today.

“Packetcraft software architects and engineers are some of the most respected experts in Bluetooth and they thrive by living at the leading edge,” said John Yi, Founder and CEO at Packetcraft. “Our early access release of Channel Sounding is highly enabling to semiconductor companies as it is portable to different chipsets. Our flexible software licensing approach can augment internal software and silicon investments with the goal of helping accelerate commercial product offerings.”

Channel Sounding is an exciting upcoming feature that, when finalized and adopted by the Bluetooth SIG, will enable the estimation of the distance between two Bluetooth Low Energy devices with a higher level of accuracy than when using existing techniques. As such, Channel Sounding is already gaining mindshare in digital key applications and being explored in a variety of compelling location-based and proximity detection use cases. In November 2023, the Bluetooth SIG published a technical blog co-authored by Packetcraft and Imec entitled “Bluetooth Channel Sounding – A Step Towards 10-cm Ranging Accuracy for Secure Access, Digital Key, and Proximity Services.”

Packetcraft’s ongoing investments into Bluetooth’s third wave of innovation delivers real value to licensees wanting to keep their Bluetooth chipset roadmaps at the leading-edge, with early access to Channel Sounding being the newest such capability delivered. Packetcraft is consistently among the first to earn Bluetooth qualification for the latest specification releases, most recently they were the first independent software company to have a Bluetooth 5.4 Qualified solution with support for Periodic Advertising with Responses (PAwR) and Encrypted Advertising Data (EAD) delivering a new ultra-low power networking technology for applications including Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) and automotive Battery Management Systems (BMS). Additionally, Packetcraft’s link layer achieved first qualification with Bluetooth 5.3 isochronous channels, which enables multi-stream audio and Auracast™ broadcast audio and is shipping in some of the first Auracast™ audio products entering the market now to deliver the future of hearing.

With immediate availability of Channel Sounding software in Packetcraft Controller, schedule a meeting to discuss your needs and Packetcraft’s capabilities.

About Packetcraft, Inc.

Packetcraft offers production-ready “baseband-to-application” embedded Bluetooth LE stacks and software, enabling over a billion devices. With protocol experts offering well-tested and efficiently designed software that achieves first-to-market qualifications, Packetcraft's semiconductor and product company licensees have a market advantage with both accelerated time-to-market and leading-edge capabilities supporting product innovation and distinction. Packetcraft’s leadership in Bluetooth LE began in 2009 with the founding of Wicentric, continued through Arm’s ownership in 2015, and is maintained today as new technological innovations such as LE Audio and Auracast™ broadcast audio, 5.4 PAwR / ESL, and other emerging technologies including Bluetooth Channel Sounding and UWB come to market. To download software and test tool product briefs and for more information, visit www.packetcraft.com