Technical Q&A QA1931

Using the correct Bluetooth LE Advertising and Connection Parameters for a stable connection

Q:  What advertising and connection parameters should I use in my Bluetooth LE accessory for a successful and stable connection with an Apple product?

A: Using incorrect advertising and connection parameters on a BLE accessory is a common source of issues, causing apps to not be able to discover, connect, or maintain a connection under real life conditions. In order to be able to establish and maintain a successful connection, you must follow not only the specifications prescribed by the Bluetooth SIG, but also the guidelines described in the Bluetooth Accessory Design Guidelines for Apple Products document when designing and configuring your accessory.

For discovering your accessory successfully

You must follow the general advertising guidelines in the Bluetooth Accessory Design Guidelines for Apple Products when constructing your advertising packets. A common mistake is to use improper advertising intervals, either due to misconfiguration or in order to save battery usage on the peripheral. Improper intervals are the most common reasons for your app to not be able to discover your accessory in the field, even though you may have observed discovery working properly in your tests.

The advertising interval of your peripheral affects the time to discovery and connect performance. Outside of ideal conditions, for example when your app is no longer active in the foreground, the time to discovery becomes longer. To maximize the probability of being discovered, the accessory must advertise at one of the listed intervals exactly.

The recommended advertising pattern and advertising intervals are:

For establishing and holding a connection successfully

You must follow the general guidelines in the Bluetooth Accessory Design Guidelines for Apple Products when establishing your connection parameters for your accessory. Common mistakes are to leave these values at their default values, or changing one or more of the parameters without considering the relationship between them.

There are certain rules and formulae that the parameters must follow. If the parameters do not comply with all of these rules, the parameter request may be rejected, or the stability and the performance of the connection may be compromised.

Use the BLE Parameter Validation Spreadsheet to check that your parameters are correct. Download link is at the end of this page.

BLE Parameter Validation Spreadsheet



Document Revision History


DateNotes
2017-09-26

Updated the content and the spreadsheet calculations in accordance with the Bluetooth Accessory Design Guidelines for Apple Products (Release R8)

2016-08-15

New document that explains the importance of correct Bluetooth LE (BLE) connection parameters and demonstrates the formulae used to calculate correct values