Exploring Bluetooth Channel Sounding on NXP's FRDM-MCXW72 Development Board

NXP Showcases Bluetooth® Channel Sounding for Secure, Centimeter-Level Ranging

By Santiago Garcia, Systems Engineer, Wireless Connectivity at NXP Semiconductors

NXP Semiconductors is demonstrating a major step forward in secure, real-time ranging with Bluetooth® Channel Sounding (BCS) on the FRDM-MCXW72 development board. With BCS, developers can achieve centimeter-level distance measurements with low latency, unlocking new experiences for secure access, automotive, and smart home applications.

To make it easy to get started, NXP is providing step-by-step videos that guide developers through running Bluetooth Channel Sounding demos using Visual Studio (VS) Code and NXP’s MCUXpresso extension.

What is Bluetooth Channel Sounding?

Bluetooth Channel Sounding is a Bluetooth 6.0 capability designed to enable accurate, secure distance estimation between two devices. Unlike traditional proximity methods that rely mainly on signal strength (RSSI), which can be influenced by obstacles and reflections, BCS uses dedicated ranging techniques to improve reliability and security.

BCS combines two complementary measurement methods:

• Phase-Based Ranging (PBR): Measures the phase of signals across multiple channels to compute distance with high precision.

• Round-Trip Time (RTT): Measures how long it takes for a signal to travel to another device and back, helping validate and enhance ranging accuracy.

Together, these approaches support more precise and robust ranging, enabling use cases such as hands-free car access, secure door unlocking, asset tracking, and context-aware smart home automation.

In Use

MCX W72 Bluetooth® Channel Sounding IC Family

The MCX W72 family delivers secure, multiprotocol wireless MCU solutions with advanced localization for scalable IoT and industrial applications.

IC, Module & SoC BLE

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BCS Enabled on the MCX W72 Wireless MCU

NXP enables Bluetooth Channel Sounding on its MCX W72 multi-protocol wireless MCU, designed for modern connected products. MCX W72 supports:

• Bluetooth® Low Energy (LE) 6.0

• Thread

• Zigbee

• Matter

To accelerate ranging performance, the MCX W72 includes a dedicated on-chip Localization Compute Engine (LCE) that helps reduce ranging latency.

Additional memory supports application-specific code, wireless stacks, and over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates,helping teams build feature-rich devices while keeping headroom for updates and evolving connectivity requirements.

FRDM-MCXW72: Rapid Prototyping for Secure Ranging Applications

The FRDM-MCXW72 development board, based on the MCX W72, is designed for flexible and rapid prototyping, enabling quick evaluation of device capabilities and easy iteration on real-world demos.

Developers can jumpstart development with ready-to-use examples from NXP’s Application Code Hub (ACH), accessible through the MCUXpresso extension on VS Code.

Watch the Step-By-Step Demo Videos

NXP’s videos walk you through setup and execution of Bluetooth Channel Sounding demos in VS Code:

• Real-time demo: FRDM-MCXW72 + smartphone
  A step-by-step guide to measuring distance between a FRDM-MCXW72 board and a smartphone in real time.

• Board-to-board demo: two FRDM-MCXW72 boards
  A step-by-step guide to measuring distance between two FRDM-MCXW72 boards.

Get Started Today

Start exploring Bluetooth Channel Sounding using NXP-provided software examples with:

• FRDM-MCXW72 development board

• MCUXpresso extension on VS Code

• Application Code Hub (ACH) software examples

Browse NXP’s ACH for FRDM-MCXW72 examples and accelerate your path from prototype to product or get in contact with NXP!