cpu/esp32: add Bluetooth LE and NimBLE host support by gschorcht · Pull Request #18439 · RIOT-OS/RIOT

gschorcht · 2022-08-11T10:22:27Z

Contribution description

This PR provides Bluetooth LE and NimBLE host support for ESP32. In detail it includes the following changes:

patches for the compilation of ESP-IDF Bluetooth LE controller code
changes and extensions of the FreeRTOS adaptation layer required by the ESP-IDF Bluetooth LE controller code
additional module esp_idf_ble with the ESP-IDF Bluetooth LE controller code
new linker script used when Bluetooth LE support is enabled due to different memory layout
additional pseudomodule esp_ble to enable Bluetooth LE support
additional module nimble_transport_hci_h4 in package nimble
conditional compilation of nRF5x code in package nimble
additional pseudomodule esp_ble_nimble to enable NimBLE host support
test application for Bluetooth and WiFi coexistence

The following examples/tests already work:

BLE support already works for ESP32-C3 as well.

Testing procedure

Use any ESP32 board to test examples/nimble_scanner:

BOARD=esp32-wroom-32 make -j8 -C examples/nimble_scanner flash term

Issues/PRs references

gschorcht · 2022-08-11T10:26:43Z

@benpicco Now that we are using ESP-IDF directly, even Bluetooth LE support seems to be possible 😉

gschorcht · 2022-08-11T15:56:49Z

Since the label State: WIP is set and there is no review active, I feel free to squash an force push a number of fixes.

maribu

Code looks good to me. I'm looking forward to test this :)

gschorcht · 2022-08-12T07:06:01Z

I think with ef7fbf7 I found a more elegant way to avoid compiling files that depend on nRF5x MCUs than patching the NimBLE sources with 5244724.

gschorcht · 2022-08-12T07:42:16Z

The coexistence of BLE and WiFi in station mode seems to work with this PR. I have created an application that combines examples/gnrc_networking and examples/nimble_scanner. It is possible to execute command scan while connecting to the WiFi AP and it is possible to ping the ESP32 node with ping6 -i0.1 -s 1280 and execute the scan command simultaneously.

Should I add this application for testing to this PR?

With the current implementation, coexistence is controlled by the hardware. However, for heavy traffic environments, it is recommended to control the coexistence by the software according the the documentation of Kconfig option ESP32_WIFI_SW_COEXIST_ENABLE

            If enabled, WiFi & Bluetooth coexistence is controlled by software rather than hardware.
            Recommended for heavy traffic scenarios. Both coexistence configuration options are
            automatically managed, no user intervention is required.
            If only Bluetooth is used, it is recommended to disable this option to reduce binary file
            size.

I haven't tried it yet.

The coexistence of BLE and WiFi in SoftAP mode isn't supported. Therefore, the coexistence of BLE and ESP-NOW is also not supported.

gschorcht · 2022-08-12T07:58:58Z

However, for heavy traffic environments, it is recommended to control the coexistence by the software according the the documentation of Kconfig option ESP32_WIFI_SW_COEXIST_ENABLE

Seems to work too, and it makes a significant difference. When I ping the ESP32 node with ping6 -i0.01 -s 1280, without ESP32_WIFI_SW_COEXIST_ENABLE the ping is slowed down much more during the execution of the scan command than with ESP32_WIFI_SW_COEXIST_ENABLE. With this option the scan command has almost no impact on the RTT.

gschorcht · 2022-08-12T11:17:11Z

Hm, nimble_*_ext modules can be enabled without having the feature of extended advertising. That is, there is no feature ble_nimble_ext required for nimble_*_ext modules.

ESP32 and ESP32-S2 are only Bluetooth LE 4.2 devices that work with the NimBLE host stack but have no extended advertising.

Should we introduce feature ble_nimble_ext and the according dependencies?

benpicco · 2022-08-23T15:33:07Z

Please squash again

If the package is used for a controller that supports the HCI UART H4 transport layer protocol, the functions implemented in `nimble/transport/common/hci_h4` are very useful to deal with H4 formatted packages. If required, they can be enabled by module `nimble_transport_hci_h4`.

The package uses the nRFx SDK package `nrfx`. In addition, the `mynewt-nimble` repository contains some files (`porting/nimble/src/hal_timer.c` and `porting/npl/riot/src/nrf5x_isr.c`) that are compilable only for nRF MCUs. To allow the compilation for other platforms, the use of the `nrfx` package and the compilation of these files are now dependent on the use of any nRF5x MCU.

When using Bluetooth LE, the former UART interrupt number 5 is occupied by the ESP32 Bluetooth Controller. Therefore, another interrupt number has to be used for UART.

To reduce the required RAM in default configuration, the BLE interface is used as netdev_default instead of ESP-NOW. Further network interfaces can be enabled with the modules `esp_now`, `esp_wifi` or `esp_eth`.

`nimble_rpl` was not compilable without `nimble_controller` because the header includes were inside the conditional for `MODULE_NIMBLE_CONTROLLER`.

The definition of gettimeofday in pkg/ccn-lite leads to multiple definitions on platforms where gettimeofday is compiled in in newlib. Therefore, the gettimeofday function in pkg/ccn-lite is declared as weak symbol.

When FreeRTOS semaphores, as required by ESP-IDF, are used together with `gnrc_netif`, RIOT may crash if `STATUS_RECEIVE_BLOCKED` is used as a blocking mechanism in the FreeRTOS adaptation layer. The reason for this is that `gnrc_netif` uses thread flags since PR RIOT-OS#16748. If the `gnrc_netif` thread is blocked because of a FreeRTOS semaphore, and is thus in `STATUS_RECEIVE_BLOCKED` state, the `_msg_send` function will cause a crash because it then assumes that `target->wait_data` contains a pointer to a message of type `msg_t`, but by using thread flags it contains the flag mask. This situation can happen if the ESP hardware is used while another thread is sending something timer controlled to the `gnrc_netif` thread. To solve this problem `STATUS_MUTEX_LOCKED` is used instead of `STATUS_RECEIVE_BLOCKED` and `STATUS_SEND_BLOCKED`

benpicco

Code looks good, I don't know enough about the BLE examples to judge, but I trust your testing.

Will this also be easy to enable for ~~ESP32-S2~~, ESP32-S3 and ESP32-C3?

benpicco · 2022-08-24T09:46:31Z

Does this still depend on #18454?

maribu · 2022-08-24T11:16:45Z

Does this still depend on #18454?

No, it is using the mutex blocked status instead. There are no assumptions towards the blocked for mutex status as of now.

I was planning on reusing that for tracing the owner of a mutex, but one really wants that to be readily available in the mutex, rather than having to search through all running threads.

I guess this shows that we should add the dedicated thread states and move to them when merged. But for now, this should work :)

gschorcht · 2022-08-24T15:23:19Z

Code looks good, I don't know enough about the BLE examples to judge, but I trust your testing.

Will this also be easy to enable for ~~ESP32-S2~~, ESP32-S3 and ESP32-C3?

I already have it ready for ESP32-C3, I was just waiting for this PR to be merged 😉

gschorcht · 2022-08-24T15:24:51Z

Thanks for reviewing and merging.

gschorcht · 2022-08-24T16:36:20Z

I already have it ready for ESP32-C3, I was just waiting for this PR to be merged

See PR #18510

gschorcht requested review from MrKevinWeiss, jia200x and leandrolanzieri as code owners August 11, 2022 10:22

gschorcht added State: WIP State: The PR is still work-in-progress and its code is not in its final presentable form yet Type: new feature The issue requests / The PR implemements a new feature for RIOT labels Aug 11, 2022

gschorcht force-pushed the cpu/esp32/enable_ble_nimble branch from fc9dbfd to 2cae517 Compare August 11, 2022 10:25

benpicco requested a review from haukepetersen August 11, 2022 10:29

gschorcht force-pushed the cpu/esp32/enable_ble_nimble branch from 2cae517 to e648c15 Compare August 11, 2022 10:47

gschorcht force-pushed the cpu/esp32/enable_ble_nimble branch from e648c15 to cf271dd Compare August 11, 2022 16:13

benpicco requested a review from maribu August 11, 2022 16:40

maribu reviewed Aug 11, 2022

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gschorcht added the CI: ready for build If set, CI server will compile all applications for all available boards for the labeled PR label Aug 12, 2022

gschorcht force-pushed the cpu/esp32/enable_ble_nimble branch 3 times, most recently from 03d67d3 to 003cd45 Compare August 12, 2022 06:05

github-actions Bot added the Area: build system Area: Build system label Aug 12, 2022

github-actions Bot added the Platform: ARM Platform: This PR/issue effects ARM-based platforms label Aug 12, 2022

github-actions Bot added the Platform: ARM Platform: This PR/issue effects ARM-based platforms label Aug 23, 2022

gschorcht force-pushed the cpu/esp32/enable_ble_nimble branch from d67dbbc to 8ba0d3f Compare August 23, 2022 16:10

gschorcht added 16 commits August 24, 2022 09:03

pkg/esp32_sdk: patch needed for ESP32 Bluetooth LE controller

5b004f3

pkg/esp32_sdk_lib_bt_esp32: add BLE library for ESP32

13770be

cpu/esp32: change the UART interrupt number

b74bf01

When using Bluetooth LE, the former UART interrupt number 5 is occupied by the ESP32 Bluetooth Controller. Therefore, another interrupt number has to be used for UART.

cpu/esp_common/freertos: changes required for BLE

cdc8a72

cpu/esp32/esp-idf: add ESP-IDF module for BLE support

e257652

cpu/esp32: add BLE support in linker scripts for ESP32

48e7263

cpu/esp32: add BLE support for ESP32

abccc41

cpu/esp32: add NimBLE support for ESP32

56e59eb

cpu/esp_common: use BLE as netdev_default if nimble_netif is used

26956a9

To reduce the required RAM in default configuration, the BLE interface is used as netdev_default instead of ESP-NOW. Further network interfaces can be enabled with the modules `esp_now`, `esp_wifi` or `esp_eth`.

pkg/nimble: fix nimble_rpl compilation if nimble_controller isn't used

9910559

`nimble_rpl` was not compilable without `nimble_controller` because the header includes were inside the conditional for `MODULE_NIMBLE_CONTROLLER`.

pkg/ccn-lite: declare gettimeofday function as weak symbol

4bcaab1

The definition of gettimeofday in pkg/ccn-lite leads to multiple definitions on platforms where gettimeofday is compiled in in newlib. Therefore, the gettimeofday function in pkg/ccn-lite is declared as weak symbol.

cpu/esp32: add some debugging info in esp_ble_nimble

f848f66

tests: add NimBLE/esp_wifi coexistence test

4b0d920

gschorcht force-pushed the cpu/esp32/enable_ble_nimble branch from 8ba0d3f to 4b0d920 Compare August 24, 2022 07:05

benpicco approved these changes Aug 24, 2022

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benpicco merged commit 2abc850 into RIOT-OS:master Aug 24, 2022

gschorcht deleted the cpu/esp32/enable_ble_nimble branch August 24, 2022 16:04

gschorcht mentioned this pull request Aug 24, 2022

cpu/esp32: enable BLE and NimBLE host support for ESP32-C3 #18510

Merged

benpicco added this to the Release 2022.10 milestone Aug 26, 2022

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Contribution description

Testing procedure

Issues/PRs references

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