Power Line Communications (PLC)

PLC (Power Line Communications) is a well known technology. In the last couple of years, a variety of PLC based applications and large projects were introduced. This includes AMR and AMI (Automated Meter Reading and Automated Metering Infrastructure), Command & Control, intelligent infrastructure, Smart Grid and more. The narrow-band PLC arena involves standard (e.g. PRIME, G3-PLC, HomePlug CC and IEEE P1901.2) as well as proprietary protocols. The Peryton-PLC is a wire-line protocol analyzer for narrow-band PLC networks. It allows sniffing and analyzing PLC-PRIME or G3-PLC traffic helping developers, QA, technical support and integration teams to improve product quality while keeping shorter time to market. Supporting a variety of standard communications protocols as well as customization for proprietary protocols, with easy to learn, intuitive, user interface, our analyzers are the tool of choice for developers, Quality Assurance engineers, technical support and system integrators. Designed for Desktop or Laptop PCs, the Perytons PLC Protocol Analyzers wire-line basic models are distinguished by their connection interface to the monitored PLC environment they are connected to (i.e. Peryton-PLC for PLC-PRIME or Peryton-PLC for G3-PLC) – or each a relevant front-end loaded with relevant FW is used and for environments complying with Cenelec A, B, C, FCC or Arib directives). The Perytons PLC Protocol Analyzers support standard front-ends which are included in the product when purchased (USB connected modules) for immediate out-of-the-box operation. The Perytons PLC Protocol Analyzers are based on a single sophisticated core software structure built of different views and options. This approach addresses different personnel analysis needs usually required throughout the R&D cycle and allows easy upgrade from basic models to the additions of relevant add-ons as the need for such appear.

• PLC-PRIME and G3-PLC
• Viewer

• Time View
• Message View
• Message Tree View
• Network View
• Message Sequence
• Additional Tools

• Perytons Anywhere
• Perytons Scripting
• Perytons Traffic Generator
• Perytons Software Development Kit

• Screenshots
• Videos
• Online Help

Peryton-PLC is capable of sniffing and analyzing PLC-PRIME and PLC-G3 wire-line communications (a suitable front-end capable of handling each of the a.m. communication protocols and loaded with a matching FW is needed for each case – such a front-end is provided with the product for immediate out-of-the-box usage when purchased from Perytons). The captured data is then analyzed in real-time (or offline) showing the detailed content of each message down to its bits and bytes. The captured data is displayed in variety of windows allowing to see the network topology, the transactions along time, message sequence between devices and more. Professional toolbox allow to further analyze the captured data to find problematic messages, identify non standard messages, analyze the application messages and more. Analyzed data can be easily shared with colleagues for further inspection. The modular nature of our models allows to easily start by using a basic Peryton-PLC Protocol Analyzer model and upgrade the license with additional Add-Ons as relevant needs are introduced.

For cases when there is no need to capture data for analysis (e.g. for viewing and analyzing data that has been captured by models with single or multi-channel capture capability), the Peryton-V (View-only with NO capture capabilities, ‘back-office” Protocol Analyzer model) can be used.

The Perytons Protocol Analyzers Add-Ons introduce additional dimensions of flexibility that assist in implementing special features and possibilities within the Perytons PLC Protocol Analyzers environment. There are four available Add-Ons: Peryton-Anywhere, Peryton-Scripting, Peryton-TG (Traffic Generator) and Peryton-SDK. The Peryton-Anywhere Add-On The Peryton-Anywhere Add-On allows remotely monitoring and analyzing 802.15.4 based networks. All that is needed is to place a Peryton-Gateway (provided when purchasing in the Peryton-Anywhere Add-On) on site, with the relevant capturing front-end. The Peryton-Gateway connects to the Internet cloud through the available broadband infrastructure at the network site (e.g. Ethernet, WiFi) or by using a dedicated 3G cellular link (thus independent from the site’s communication facilities). The Peryton-Scripting Add-On With Peryton-Scripting Add-On the user can embed short pieces of C-Sharp (C#) code (we call those “User Defined Scripts” or just “Scripts”) into the Perytons Protocol Analyzer environment and enhance the overall analysis experience. Defined Scripts can apply operations on the received messages just before they get populated to the different application views based on specific criteria or scenarios like: generate events and alarms, define new statistics charts, present specific messages in Time and Message View windows differently, initiate over the air traffic (if also the Peryton-TG is enabled), save captured data to a MySQL format data base (parallel to the saved data to disk) and much more. No external development environment is required in order to write, execute or debug Scripts and the resulting Script code can be shared and run by other Perytons Protocol Analyzer license owners. The Peryton-TG (Traffic Generator) Add-On The Peryton-TG Add-On enhances the Perytons Protocol Analyzer basic licenses by adding the ability to create, edit (including re-encryption of relevant messages with selected encryption keys) and transmit pre-defined traffic over the air. This innovative tool enables using the Perytons Protocol Analyzer to stimulate the system-under-test by transmitting messages and in parallel capture the resulting traffic while analyzing the system-under-test response and is very useful for Protocol Vulnerability Assessments and Protocol Penetrations tests (see example movie). The Peryton-SDK (Software Development Kit) Add-On When handling networks where a customized protocol or protocol-layer is involved but yet seeking to have a sophisticated analysis tool, the Peryton-SDK Add-On could be the right choice. This Add-On allows adding a non-standard/customized protocol and/or application layers and integrate them into the Perytons Protocol Analyzer application. The new added layers gain all the Perytons Protocol Analyzer features and capabilities including user-interface, enhanced features, views and toolbox, and become part of his overall Perytons Protocol Analyzer working environment. The Peryton-SDK Add-On includes a C-Sharp (C#) development environment for Microsoft Visual Studio along with the Perytons Protocol Analyzer core libraries (the actual Microsoft Visual Studio application/license is not included).

The different Perytons PLC Protocol Analyzer products are built on top of the same powerful engine that includes a vast variety of views to cover narrow-band power-line communications analysis from the big picture to the very last bit. Some of the main sections included in the Perytons PLC Protocol Analyzers are: Time View window Provides a unique view of the transmitted messages with full and clear representation of time-related processes. Messages can be grouped by device ID, network (PAN) ID, IP Address, channel or protocol-layer. Time markers can be easily set allowing time related measurements and calculations. User time-related bookmarks as well as messages’ notes can can be inserted and shared with other users for shortening debugging processes.

Message View window Allows drilling into the details of the message fields down to their bits. Field content can be shown numerically and textually and further detailed information is displayed by moving the mouse over each field. Both graphical modes and textual-tabular modes are included.

Message-Tree View window Presents the different message blocks and layers in an easy to read color coded ‘tree-like’ (similar to XML) structure and allows looking into the data actually being transmitted over the air (in the relevant hexadecimal, ASCII or binary formats).

Network View window Auto discovers the network topology based on the received messages. Each device is presented according to its type and all known and gathered information about it. Links between devices and routes are clearly displayed and the devices can be placed over a user-defined map or floor plan so to facilitate analysis of future capture sessions in the same network environment.

Message Sequence View window Shows the interaction between multiple devices in a single screen (using a ‘Sequence’ or ‘Message Sequence’ diagram) while easily indicating the protocol layer, message direction, message type, etc. Specific transactions are identified and can be grouped.

Additional Tools The additional tools include statistics charts, flexible data search and filtering options, message compare utilities, temporary hiding element from views, encrypted data handling and more.

Analyzing ZigBeeIP and 6LoWPAN networks The Perytons Analyzer includes dedicated sophisticated features for analyzing IP protocols (e.g. 6LoWPAN, ZigBee IP). These include the ability to reconstruct HTML components of the actual HTML page (style sheet, images, etc.), building XML data into a tree-like structure and verifying its validity according to the relevant schema files, tracing participating message in TCP transactions and much more. Read more about the special features for handling IP based protocols in this whitepaper.