Handheld Analyzer of IEEE PHY and MAC Frames Milan Simek, Jiri Pokorny, Miroslav Botta, and Lubomir Mraz Brno University of Technology, Czech republic,

Motivation The WISLAB team is working at research project „Adaptive WSN with Data Visualization for Crises Management“, where many Zigbee-based sensors will be deployed.Adaptive WSN with Data Visualization for Crises Management During the testbed deployment, the motivation has arised... To fast and on-site analyze activity and signal quality of individual Zigbee nodes.

Motivation cont’d Well-known ad-hoc wireless automation protocols is based on the original or slightly modified IEEE MAC. IEEE PHY IEEE MAC We need to:  analyse channels energy  identify nodes  monitor RSSI (dBm)  monitor LQI  check nodes activity All parameters defined by PHY and MAC Radio analyser working at lower levels finds wider application between various wireless ad-hoc protocols 1 channel: 868MHz 10 channels: 916 MHz 16 channels: 2,4GHz addressing & access

Well-known WSN analysers Daintree Sensor Network Analyser  IEEE , Zigbee, 6lowPAN  very complex and powerful packet decoding  topology and association visualization  PC-based  only 2,4 GHz band  no more supported (discontinued on 2010) Perytons Analysers  2,4GHz, 868MHz/916MHz  single & multichannel observation  IEEE /4a, Zigbee, 6lowPAN, PLC, Dash7, allow to own protocols …  quite powerful substitution of Daintree SNA  PC-based (works on Tablet) Packet analysers: in addition to radio analysis provide decoding of the packets according to supported protocol

Well-known WSN analysers WiSpy & Chanalyser  observes dBm across the WiFi and 15.4.channels  2,4 GHz, 868MHz/916MHz  offers logging and reports  suitable for interference monitoring  PC-based Telegesis Zigbee Range Finder  handheld version  measure bidirectional signal energy in dBm  one monitor station & two “satellites”  monitor only channels No.11, 14, 15, 19, 20, 24, 25 Channel analysers: measure signal energy through the channels

Our handheld analyzer Features  works in2,4 GHz  reports energy scan in graphical or text list mode  configurable sniffing time (how long sniffs the channel)  configurable resolution of graphs  for each node reports address [16bit hex] RSSI [dBm] LQI[-]  results are sorted according to address or RSSI  identifies signals  announces node inactivity Does not aim to be better, it is just developed for our specific needs.

HW & SW Memisc Wireless - IRIS node  2,4 GHz radio AT86RF230  8bit ATmega1281  USART, SPI, 51pin port extension Atmel – IEEE MAC  employs CSMA-CA  defines addressing mechanism  performs energy detection  RSSI and LQI measurement  data transmission and reception  … Solution based on

Analyzer control After start up, user selects either to scan all sixteen (11-26) IEEE channels or one can choose the sniffed channel manually:

Analyzer control In the Channel scan menu, first define how long the analyser are to scan at each channel. The results can be displayed in the Graphical (bars) form or in the Text list form: If you don’t know, where your wireless network communicate

Analyzer control The dBm values at the analysed channels in the Text list form are displayed below. The symbol "15.4" indicates that that channel is occupied by the technology complying with the IEEE standard. GraphicalText list

Analyzer control By pressing BACK button, the user can jump to the main menu and manually selects the desired channel for the analyses. Once the channel is selected, it is possible to sort the results according to the MAC address or RSSI value:

Analyzer control The freshness of the dBm values are indicated by the "x" symbol. When the symbol appears, the reported dBm value was obtained more than 10 seconds before:

Conclusion Introduction of well-known WSN analyzers HW & SW used The analyzer offers: energy scan through the channels and identification of node behavior. Future work: To substitute the IRIS node by individual components to push down a price To assembly 2,4 GHz and 896MHz/916MHz radios separately To use the graphical display with higher resolution To export logged data through the USART or SD card

Thank you for attention