Time View Display

Background

802.15.4/ZigBee/6LoWPAN networks usually comprise of several devices that communicate with each other over a wireless communications medium. Each network has a unique ID (PAN ID), and each station (device) has its own unique Device ID. Several networks may coexist in the same proximity, sharing the same RF channel or using different channels.

For increased efficiency, a network coordinator station may transmit a repetitive beacon, allocating time slots for the different network members’ transmissions.

Such time-related events are difficult to analyze by going over a list of messages with the content (or even time stamp) of each of the messages.

The Perytons™ Protocol Analyzers Time-View window

The Perytons™ Protocol Analyzers provide a unique Time View window that displays messages in a two dimensional grid. In a beacon network, the beacon messages are decoded by the analyzer and beacon gridlines are displayed together with beacon allocation for uplink and downlink messages. The detection of devices transmitting out of the allocated slots now becomes very easy.

The grid’s vertical axis can be used to group messages by channel, source ID, IP address, Protocol Layer or PAN ID to allow easier understanding of traffic patterns and transactions. The following figure shows the same set of messages group according to different criteria:

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Perytons™ Monitoring for SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)

The Peryton-Monitoring Add-On allows to locally or remotely monitor operational networks for performance and potential failures.

Each of the remotely spread analyzers capturing live data, and using the User Defined Scripts, can generate statistics charts and events summarizing the performance and possible failures found in the specific local network being monitored.

The information from the different analyzers is polled by the Perytons™ SOA server (can be developed by the user, or can be a Perytons™ server) via dedicated Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The results are available to authorized personal accessing the SOA server via a simple web browser.

Architecture of the Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer

The various Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer models are based on a similar core engine, a fact that enables the easy upgrade between the different models and ensures easy cross operation and
work between all models of the Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer family.

The Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer is built-up of two main components – the analyzer core and the protocol specific elements.

The Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer core includes the GUI (Graphical User Interface), analysis engine and analysis toolbox. This part is shared by all Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer models.

The protocol specific elements include RF front-end, data capture interface, and the protocol
processor. This part is protocol-specific.

With the exception of the RF front-end, which requires dedicated hardware (supplied with the
analyzer), all other elements are implemented via software running on the user’s PC.

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Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer Overview

Perytons™ Protocol Analyzers allow analyzing and debugging wireless and wire line
communication networks such as 802.15.4, ZigBee, ZigBee RF4CE, 6LoWPAN, PLC and
802.15.4a/UWB.

The Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer includes various views for exploring data behavior like: Time
View, Network View, Message View, Message Tree View and Devices View.

Capturing data is accomplished by using external hardware as PHY front-end. For IEEE802.15.4
related traffic this is accomplished using IEEE802.15.4 USB dongles as RF receivers, while for
other protocols an external relevant box is used.

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Flexibility

The Perytons™ Protocol Analyzers provide a variety of flexibility levels for the user. Starting with the basic look and feel preferences available to all users, and all through to a full environment allowing the user to build his own protocol into the analyzer, create charts and more.

Preferences

Available in all basic Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer models.

Allows the user to set the colors of different message types, connections (colors and line
thickness), etc.

Using User Defined Scripts written by Perytons™ or by Peryton-Scripting Add-On holders

Available in all basic Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer models.

Any Perytons™ Protocol Aanalyzer user can use User Defined Scripts written for the analyzer. Such a Script can generate charts, filter messages in Time View and Message View windows, change the device icon in the Network View, generate events and alarms, and more (for further information regarding Perytons™ User Defined Scripts see the Perytons™ User Defined Scripts whitepaper).

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User Defined Scripts

User Defined Scripts are practically small pieces of code that enable the user (or Perytons™ support) to add features to the Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer, or to modify existing analysis,
without the need to add these features into the Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer core. Such features are aimed to serve specific needs or requirements by the user of the standard Perytons™ Protocol Analyzer platform. After they have been written and signed, Scripts can be incorporated as an additional layer of the analysis process and into the different Perytons Protocol Analyzer active licenses of choice.

The User Defined Scripts enhance capabilities of the Perytons™ Protocol Analyzers’ environment in
different dimensions like monitoring of live-networks; change the look and feel of the existing views (Time, Message, Network, etc.), definition of customizable statistic charts, interconnection and reports to external applications through numerous communication ports and protocols, e-mail alerts, and more.

Scripts run whenever a new message is analyzed or when a new message is displayed as
explained within the following diagram:

The various Perytons™ Protocol Analyzers basic models already include some User Defined Scripts examples (the list of these basic Scripts included in the standard products may change from time to time without prior notice).

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