nRF70 Series devices have a highly configurable coexistence hardware to help mitigate interference between WLAN and Bluetooth® LE/IEEE 802.15.4 devices (Thread®, Zigbee®).

A Packet Traffic Arbitration (PTA) module, connected to the CH logic function, facilitates the mitigation of various interference scenarios through a highly-programmable fabric. The coexistence hardware enables flexible output signals that support interface configurations like 3-wire and 4-wire. The primary schemes supported are:

  • Shared Antenna mode – The PTA makes priority decisions, controls the switch between Bluetooth LE/IEEE 802.15.4 and Wi-Fi. The PTA also grants TX/RX requests from the Bluetooth LE/IEEE 802.15.4 device. Only one interface, either Bluetooth LE/IEEE 802.15.4 or or Wi-Fi is connected to the antenna at any time.
  • Separate Antenna mode – The PTA makes priority decisions, granting TX/RX requests from Bluetooth LE/IEEE 802.15.4. Each interface is permanently connected to its own antenna.

The following figure shows the architecture of the coexistence hardware with details about the PTA control lines.

Figure 1. Coexistence hardware architecture
Page-1 Nordic Blueslate nRF70 Series nRF70 Series Nordic Lake Wi-Fi Wi-Fi Nordic Lake.8 PTA PTA Nordic Lake.13 COEX Ctrl Logic COEX Ctrl Logic Sheet.14 Nordic Sky Ant Switch Control Ant Switch Control Sheet.18 Nordic Blueslate.19 Host I/F Host I/F Sheet.22 Nordic Blueslate.23 COEX HW COEX HW Sheet.26 Sheet.32 COEX_GRANT COEX_GRANT Sheet.35 Sheet.36 COEX_STATUS0 COEX_STATUS0 Sheet.37 Sheet.38 COEX_REQ COEX_REQ Sheet.39 Sheet.40 SW_CTRL0 SW_CTRL0 Sheet.41 Sheet.42 COEX_STATUS1/SW_CTRL1 COEX_STATUS1/SW_CTRL1 Sheet.49 Sheet.50 Sheet.51
Table 1. Coexistence hardware signals
Signal name I/O Requirement Bluetooth LE/IEEE 802.15.4 signal (3-wire/4-wire) Description
COEX_REQ Input Mandatory for 3-wire and 4-wire SR_REQUEST Bluetooth LE/IEEE 802.15.4 device requesting a TX/RX transaction
COEX_STATUS0 Input Mandatory for 3-wire and 4-wire SR_STATUS Indicates if the Bluetooth LE/IEEE 802.15.4 transaction is TX or RX. If the device supports a Priority signal, Priority is muxed with TX/RX on this signal based on the timing diagrams.
COEX_GRANT Output Mandatory for 3-wire and 4-wire SR_GRANT Indicates that the Bluetooth LE/IEEE 802.15.4 device is granted access for this transaction.
COEX_STATUS1/SW_CTRL1 Input/Output Optional for 3-wire SR_PTI/RF_SW_CTRL1 In 4-wire mode, this carries the Bluetooth LE/IEEE 802.15.4 1 bit priority signal. In 3-wire Shared Antenna mode, this can be optionally used as a second antenna switch control signal.
SW_CTRL0 Output Mandatory for 3-wire and 4-wire Shared Antenna mode. Optional otherwise RF_SW_CTRL0 Used for antenna switch control in Shared Antenna mode.
Note: The behavior of SW_CTRL0/1 is programmable and dependent on the configured coexistence mode and switch control interface.