ASHA for Linux

github.com

51 points·madspindel··7 comments

Those Bluetooth ASHA audio protocol is very nice for older Cochlear America implant processors, as opposed to the problematic Bluetooth LE Audio protocol.

Why is the Bluetooth LE Audio protocol problematic?

I wouldn't call it problematic, but LE Audio does require new Bluetooth stack, both hardware and software.

ASHA works with older Bluetooth Low Energy spec versions.

But ASHA is bad: A too-simple protocol, leading implementations having to figure out timing themselves. I implemented ASHA in our Hearing Aids, btw.

> A too-simple protocol

An issue with BLE is that there is a lot of IP in the typical software stack and bill of materials. Its one thing for the protocol to be too simple (for example in cases where IEC 62304 are to be applied) but its another thing entirely to have no way to audit the stack that your chip vendor, who also happens to be your software stack supplier, is selling you in certain quantities.

Of course, there are outliers like Nordic, but there are in-liers, like Qualcomm. This field is rife with issues - and, especially, with peer-based audio streaming, in general.

Because we are approaching a point in the BLE grey-goo-iverse where the CPU's are perfectly powerful enough to not have to peer audio, and can just be used in a network topology - yet the vendor protocols are designed to disallow that happening.

The sooner we disenfranchise (literally) ourselves from BLE and just make the devices client/server instead of master/slave, the better.

Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA), an open streaming media protocol for audio casting to hearing receivers.

Thanks; so it's not Asha Bhosle (which the 45s are brimful of).

Great singer btw.

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