Home Area Network Performance Metrics and Monitoring Phase 2

Test Tools Guide for PET, WET, and Central Site Programs
1020106

Home Area Network Performance Metrics and Monitoring Phase 2

Test Tools Guide for PET, WET, and Central Site Programs 1020106 Technical Update, December 2010

EPRI Project Manager E. Ibrahim

ELECTRIC POWER RESEARCH INSTITUTE 3420 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, California 94304-1338 PO Box 10412, Palo Alto, California 94303-0813 USA 800.313.3774 650.855.2121 askepri@epri.com www.epri.com

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITIES

THIS DOCUMENT WAS PREPARED BY THE ORGANIZATION(S) NAMED BELOW AS AN ACCOUNT OF WORK SPONSORED OR COSPONSORED BY THE ELECTRIC POWER RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC. (EPRI). NEITHER EPRI, ANY MEMBER OF EPRI, ANY COSPONSOR, THE ORGANIZATION(S) BELOW, NOR ANY PERSON ACTING ON BEHALF OF ANY OF THEM: (A) MAKES ANY WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION WHATSOEVER, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, (I) WITH RESPECT TO THE USE OF ANY INFORMATION, APPARATUS, METHOD, PROCESS, OR SIMILAR ITEM DISCLOSED IN THIS DOCUMENT, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR (II) THAT SUCH USE DOES NOT INFRINGE ON OR INTERFERE WITH PRIVATELY OWNED RIGHTS, INCLUDING ANY PARTY'S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, OR (III) THAT THIS DOCUMENT IS SUITABLE TO ANY PARTICULAR USER'S CIRCUMSTANCE; OR (B) ASSUMES RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING ANY CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF EPRI OR ANY EPRI REPRESENTATIVE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES) RESULTING FROM YOUR SELECTION OR USE OF THIS DOCUMENT OR ANY INFORMATION, APPARATUS, METHOD, PROCESS, OR SIMILAR ITEM DISCLOSED IN THIS DOCUMENT. THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATION, UNDER CONTRACT TO EPRI, PREPARED THIS REPORT UrElectronics Inc.

This is an EPRI Technical Update report. A Technical Update report is intended as an informal report of continuing research, a meeting, or a topical study. It is not a final EPRI technical report.

NOTE
For further information about EPRI, call the EPRI Customer Assistance Center at 800.313.3774 or e-mail askepri@epri.com. Electric Power Research Institute, EPRI, and TOGETHERSHAPING THE FUTURE OF ELECTRICITY are registered service marks of the Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. Copyright 2010 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The following organization, under contract to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), prepared this report: UrElectronics Inc. 5236 RidgeVale Way Pleasanton, Ca 94566 Principal Investigator J. Alrawi This report describes research sponsored by EPRI.

This publication is a corporate document that should be cited in the literature in the following manner: Home Area Network Performance Metrics and Monitoring Phase 2: Test Tools Guide for PET, WET, and Central Site Programs. EPRI, Palo Alto, CA: 2010. 1020106.
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ABSTRACT
In considering a particular communication technology and protocol, one of the earliest steps that must be taken is to review features and performance claims by its publishing agency (manufacturer or supporting alliance). These claims are based on specific conditions, generally ideal ones. This is mainly because of practicality issues since it is difficult if not impossible to cover a technologys performance in every possible condition where it may be used. This approach also tends to put that technology in the best possible light. It is the responsibility of the system designer to determine the usability of a specific technology in a particular application. In the context of a general definition of SmartGrid, communication plays a pivotal role in its successful implementation. SmartGrid Communication can be categorized in three parts: long haul Wide Area Network (WAN), the Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) and the Home Area Network (HAN). In order to evaluate each network (WAN, NAN or HAN) alone, or in any combination of the three, specific test tools must be available. In order to modularize the required test tools, a system can be modeled using an OSI stack; then there can be several versions of communication evaluation tools which can focus on a specific layer within the OSI stack and all those below it.

Figure AB-01 OSI Stack Model

It is worth noting that all indicated layers of testing can be deterministic except for the PHY layer. Layer 1 (PHY) is dependent on the environment where it is used plus the design parameters of devices used in the system. This is the motivation behind focusing on the PHY and MAC layers testing in this project. This project focuses on two specific communication technologies ZigBee (a wireless technology) and HomePlug AV (HPAV) (a power line communication technology); by developing two new tools called the Wireless Evaluation Tool (WET) and the Power Line Communication Evaluation tool (PET). Both WET and PET test tools concentrate on layer 1 (Physical layer or PHY) and layer 2 (Data link) (MAC) by simulating other layers.

To evaluate any communication channel (layers 1, 2) there are common metrics that can be used despite differences in protocol and interface in use. A summary list of such metrics could include: Signal Strength Channel Noise Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) Physical layer bit carrying capacity Application layer through put capacity Transmission latency Bit Error Rate (BER) and/or Packet Error Rate (PER) Other metrics specific to the PHY or protocol

The objective is to determine the current quality of MAC and PHY communication as well as the ability to make predictions of its future performance. The current communication health can be quantified by BER and PER, while current and future performance can be predicted by signal strength, channel noise and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and their margins. It can also be helpful to quantify types of failures in transmission (TX) and reception (RX); if they are errors due to Cyclic Redundancy check CRC, or due to security failure and so on. It is helpful to determine number of times a packet had to be retransmitted in order to arrive successfully at its intended node. It is also valuable to understand the changes in communication quality due to varying conditions over a sufficiently long period of time (up to twelve months for example). That is why the Central program, a remote monitoring tool, was developed to assist in long term monitoring. It includes the ability to remotely monitor and record a history of the communication channels metrics in a log file where it can be analyzed at a later time. Keywords ZigBee HomePlug AV Home area network PHY/MAC layer performance metrics Wireless communication evaluation tool (WET) Powerline communication evaluation tool (PET)

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CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................1-1 UBT Overview Description ...................................................................................................1-1 UST Overview Description ...................................................................................................1-1 2 POWERLINE COMMUNICATION EVALUTION TOOL (PET)...............................................2-1 PET Features and Theory of Operation ...............................................................................2-1 PET Program Setup .............................................................................................................2-2 PET Program Interface ........................................................................................................2-3 PET Program Limitations .....................................................................................................2-3 3 WIRELESS COMMUNICATION EVALUTION TOOL (WET).................................................3-1 WET Feature and Theory of Operation................................................................................3-1 WET Program Setup ............................................................................................................3-2 WET Program Interface .......................................................................................................3-3 WET Program Limitations ....................................................................................................3-3 4 CENTRAL NETWORK MONITORING ...................................................................................4-1 Central Features and Theory of Operation ..........................................................................4-1 Central Program Setup ........................................................................................................4-2 Central Program Interface....................................................................................................4-2 Central Program Limitations.................................................................................................4-2 5 TRAFFIC AGGREGATOR .....................................................................................................5-1 Traffic Aggregator (TA) Features and Theory of Operation .................................................5-1 Traffic Aggregator Program Setup .......................................................................................5-1 Traffic Aggregator Program Interface...................................................................................5-2 6 CONCLUSION AND PROPOSED FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS ...........................................6-1 PET Proposed future Improvements....................................................................................6-1 WET Proposed future Improvements...................................................................................6-1 Central Proposed future Improvements ...............................................................................6-1 A UBT/PET USER MANUAL ................................................................................................... A-1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... A-1 UBT ..................................................................................................................................... A-2 Operation Systems Supported: ..................................................................................... A-2 HARDWARE: ................................................................................................................ A-2 UBT SET UP/MODIFY ADDRESS:............................................................................... A-3 STARTING UBT PROGRAM ........................................................................................ A-5 TX ENABLE: ................................................................................................................. A-6 INCLUDE TX IN GRAPH: ............................................................................................. A-7 LOCAL TRAFFIC .......................................................................................................... A-7
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CHANNEL CAPACITY .................................................................................................. A-7 REMOTE SITE.............................................................................................................. A-9 STATUS BOX ............................................................................................................... A-9 WAN APPLICATION ..................................................................................................... A-9 PET ..................................................................................................................................... A-9 Select Network Device (HomePlug network device) ................................................... A-10 Selecting Node of interest ........................................................................................... A-10 SNR Measurement...................................................................................................... A-11 Tone Map Measurement ............................................................................................. A-11 Connecting to the Internet........................................................................................... A-11 PET Logging ............................................................................................................... A-12 B WIRELESS EVALUATION TOOL (WET) USER MANUAL AND INTERFACE GUIDE REV 1.8..................................................................................................................................... B-1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... B-1 Local PWET System Configuration..................................................................................... B-2 Select the Com Port ...................................................................................................... B-3 Com Port Setup............................................................................................................. B-3 ZigBee Test Selection Window ..................................................................................... B-4 Test Execution .................................................................................................................... B-4 Coordinator Connection: ............................................................................................... B-4 Radio RSSI and ED Graph ........................................................................................... B-5 Enable Log .................................................................................................................... B-7 Enable NET:.................................................................................................................. B-7 Scn_Chnls:.................................................................................................................... B-7 Clr Stat .......................................................................................................................... B-8 CLr ALL ......................................................................................................................... B-8 Proposed IEEE 802.15.4 Counters ............................................................................... B-8 NetWork Re Init............................................................................................................. B-8 Btry................................................................................................................................ B-8 Remote (Central) WET Server ............................................................................................ B-8 Interface Specifications ..................................................................................................... B-10 Introduction ................................................................................................................. B-10 Specific PWET Behavior ................................................................................................... B-11 Types of Packets Accepted......................................................................................... B-11 Packet Type Identification ........................................................................................... B-11 Graph and Data Update Period................................................................................... B-12 Packet Start and Stop Code........................................................................................ B-12 Serial Interface Setup.................................................................................................. B-12 Types of Packets............................................................................................................... B-12 Status Packet (Data[0]=0) ........................................................................................... B-13 Loopback Packet (Data[0]=1)...................................................................................... B-13

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Channel Scan Packet (Data[0]=2)............................................................................... B-13 Enable/ Disable Status (Data[0]=3)................................................................................... B-14 Clear IEEE802.15.4 Counters (Data [0]=4)................................................................. B-14 Other Data[0] Codes are Reserved............................................................................. B-14 Embedded Program Structure .......................................................................................... B-14 PWET and EWET packet structure................................................................................... B-17 Data Field Structure .................................................................................................... B-18 C CENTRAL MONITOR/SERVER ........................................................................................... C-1 Buttons Description ............................................................................................................. C-1

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2-1 Local PET Setup.......................................................................................................2-2 Figure 3-1 Local WET System Setup.........................................................................................3-2 Figure 5-1 System Overall Diagram...........................................................................................5-1 Figure 5-2 Traffic Aggregator Interface......................................................................................5-2 Figure A-1 UBT/PET Main GUI................................................................................................. A-3 Figure A-2 Entering Network Information GUI .......................................................................... A-4 Figure A-3 UBT Results Display ............................................................................................... A-6 Figure A-4 PET Program Main GUI ........................................................................................ A-10 Figure A-5 Tone Map Graph ................................................................................................... A-11 Figure A-6 Select Central IP and TCP Addresses .................................................................. A-12 Figure A-7 HPAV Logging GUI ............................................................................................... A-12 Figure B-1 Overall Test Setup .................................................................................................. B-2 Figure B-2 Com Port Selection ................................................................................................. B-3 Figure B-3 Com Port Setting Setup .......................................................................................... B-3 Figure B-4 ZigBee Test Selection ............................................................................................. B-4 Figure B-5 ED Polar Plot at the Coordinator............................................................................. B-6 Figure B-6 RSSI Plot for Nodes Other than the Coordinator .................................................... B-6 Figure B-7 Network Connection Setup ..................................................................................... B-7 Figure B-8 Scan All Channels Graph........................................................................................ B-7 Figure B-9 Central Main Window .............................................................................................. B-9 Figure B-10 Remote Command and Monitor Windows .......................................................... B-10 Figure B-11 EWET Software Flow .......................................................................................... B-11 Figure B-12 Status Packet Data [0..40] Block Definitions....................................................... B-13 Figure B-13 MAC Metrics Definition........................................................................................ B-13 Figure B-14 Rev 1.0 Coordinator Program Flow Chart........................................................... B-15 Figure B-15 Rev 1.0 EndDevice Node Program Flow Chart................................................... B-16 Figure B-16 Rev 1.0 Router Program Flow Chart................................................................... B-16 Figure C-1 Central Main GUI .................................................................................................... C-1

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INTRODUCTION
Prior to this project, UrElectronics had developed UrElectronics Bandwidth Test UBT and UrElectronics Serial Test UST Tools. UBT, with Ethernet interface was developed to Evaluate Long range Wi-Fi installation such as building to building communication. The UST was developed to evaluate UrElectronics 900MHz radio and its proprietary protocol. Both tools were later adopted to support other functions such as Ethernet based network evaluation in the case of UBT and testing industrial RS-485 communication in the case of UST. UBT Overview Description UBT is an Ethernet based test tool; it simulates layers 3 to 7 of the OSI Stack, and is able to generate and capture traffic at the MAC layer (layer 2). It primarily uses ICMP type packets for communication evaluation. It involves connecting two computers across an Ethernet network of interest. The computer where the user is located is labeled Local while the other is labeled Remote. UBT allows the user to control and monitor traffic on both the local and remote systems from the same machine, and to do this simultaneously. It provides the option of selecting packet size and number of bits per second to be sent across the network. Other options include auto network parameters detection (local and remote MAC address as well as local IP address), Batch processing and logging. It also supports filtering incoming traffic based on IP or MAC address. UST Overview Description UST is able to transmit and receive data over the serial port (RS-232). It is able to send data across a serial link where a second computer can capture and analyze received data or return it to the sender. The sender will compare received data to that sent and determine latency and bit error rate. This is an essential tool to evaluate relatively long distance RS-232/285/422 wired or wireless serial links.

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POWERLINE COMMUNICATION EVALUTION TOOL (PET)
PET Features and Theory of Operation The PET tool uses UBT as the base engine to generate, send and capture packets over an Ethernet connection. There are many Ethernet packet types defined by a 16-bit EtherType field within an Ethernet packet. Code 88E1 is an EtherType that is reserved for HomePlug. To support this project, the packet generation engine was modified to support Ethernet packets of this HomePlug type. HomePlug supports a set of messages referred to as Management Message Entry (MME). These messages are used to manage, configure and monitor a HomePlug network. These messages are transported via HomePlug type Ethernet packets. The PET program uses these messages, MMEs, to identify the nodes on the network and, based on the users command selection, interrogate each node within the network to obtain its statistics counters, Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) or Tone Map between two nodes. Once the PET/UBT program is executed, a selection between UBT and HPAV must be made. If HPAV is selected, the PET GUI is displayed. The user must then select the network interface device from a list populated by the program of all available network devices. Once the correct device is selected, the program will issue Network info request Network Info which will return the list of HPAV linked nodes (AVLN) in the network of which the requesting station is a member. As a result, relevant information from each AVLN is sent back. Once the program receives information to identify MAC addresses of all nodes within the network, it will list each nodes MAC address and that of the computer it is connected to in order to enable its selection for obtaining statistics, SNR and Tone Map measurement. The PET program will issue Link Statistics MME to each node detected to obtain and display its statistics counters. HPAV divides an AC cycle to 5 intervals (incase of 60 Hz). The average of all AC cycles intervals of each node is displayed in conjunction with its own MAC address. The program will interrogate each node once every three seconds and update the display. It will display transmitted PBs (Physical Blocks) successfully, failed and percent rate of failure, Received PBs successful, failed and percent rate of failure, Transmitted MPDUs (MAC Protocol Data Units) successfully, failed and percent rate of failure, received MPDUs received successfully, failed and percent rate of failure, and number of collisions. After the networks nodes have been identified, the user has the option of selecting a node and requesting SNR or Tone Map information. These requests will apply to the path between the requesting machine and the selected node.

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When SNR information is requested, the program will issue Receive Tone Map Characteristics MME to retrieve modulation per carrier of the tone map. The modulation used by each carrier is utilized to determine the number of bits per carrier. The modulation used is dependent on the SNR of each tone. Therefore the SNR can be calculated as follow: SNRslot
= ( 0
carrirs

[bitspercar rir ] = {0,2,4,7,10,16,22,28}) / Carriers

ATNslot = SNRslot- 60 Carriers: the number of enabled carriers. Bitspercarrier: Number of bits per tone per slot; 0 10 bits determined by type of modulation used for that tone. WhenaTonemapisrequested,theprogramwillalsoissuea Receive Tone Map Characteristics MME request. The program will graph the determined average number of bits used per tone over all used AC cycle slots based on the received modulation used on each tone (carrier). For the United States, there are 5 slots for the 60HZ AC and 917 tones (carriers) are used. The program will assume 150 Mb/s physical layer bit rate which corresponds to 7 bits per carrier or 6419 (7*917) cumulative bits for 917 carriers. It will display the percentage of the sum (over 917 tones) of all bits per carrier reported by the device for the network path requested. This can be used as a rough indicator of the physical layers capacity. It can also be used to determine the impact of devices added to the power line (as noise sources) on the total bandwidth available to HomePlug AV. This number may not have a linear correspondence to the available segments channels capacity, but it provides a valuable comparison tool. PET Program Setup

Figure 2-1 Local PET Setup

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In order to operate the PET program, a HPAV network must be set up with more than one node, and at least one packet must be transmitted over the link between any two nodes of interest. It is important to note that the program is able to measure the communication channel quality (SNR and Tone Map ) between the node where the program is operating and any other node within the network (example over segments AB or AC). The program is not able to measure the communication channel quality on any segment not directly connected to it (example segment BC). PET Program Interface The PET Program is limited to an Ethernet Type interface. The communication between the PET program and the HPAV is based on HomePlug type Ethernet packets. PET Program Limitations There are many features that can be added to the PET program. These features can be added in the future if it is determined that they are needed. The following are some of these features The current PET program is not able to configure HPAV for QOS and security. The Tone Map displays the average bits per tone of the 5 AC slots. The program can be modified to display the tone map of each AC slot independently. The program is not able to provide communication channel quality measurements between nodes that are not directly connected to the requesting system.

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WIRELESS COMMUNICATION EVALUTION TOOL (WET)
WET Feature and Theory of Operation The WET program is based on UrElectronics serial Test (UST) evaluation tool. The program is able to assemble, send and receive data (packets) over a PC com port (or USB simulated com port). There are two sections to the WET program, a PC based WET (PWET) and an Embedded WET (EWET). The current PWET program is designed to physically connect to the coordinator of ZigBee network and will communicate to EWET. EWET is an embedded application (EndPoint) that is required to be available within the coordinator and other nodes of the ZigBee network to support PWET. EWET in the coordinator is able to generate its own status and receive those of other nodes within its network and forward them to the PWET program via com port. The EWET application in other ZigBee nodes will send their status to the coordinator. EWET is also able to respond to commands generated by the PWET program. The following are commands that are supported by the current version of PWET program: Loopback Energy Detection ED (the coordinator only) Clear counters Enable / Disable sending status Receive status packets

The format of these commands and their responses are included in the WET user manual. Upon connecting the coordinator to the computer, it will periodically transmit its status packets to the PWET program. The status packets include its long and short addresses, parent if any (zero is sent for short and parent addresses for the coordinator), RSSI (equivalent to Energy Detection when no other radios are present in the network), LQI (zero in the case of the coordinate), the values of the proposed IEEE 802.15.4 counters as well as sensor information if any are available. When other radios are powered up, they will transmit their status packets to the coordinator which will forward them to the PWET program. Once the program receives a status a packet, it will compare the long address against a list of long addresses of already existing radios. If it finds a match it will replace the earlier stored packet with the one just arrived. If does not find a match it will enter the arrived status packet in a buffer link list of active radios in a location such that the link list will have the radios sorted by

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their long address in an ascending order. A second thread will periodically display and process the link list of the active radios. The user has the option of having the RSSI plotted by including the radio of interest and enabling graphic check boxes. He/She can send packets to included radios (by selecting INC) by enabling continuous TX or Limited TX (number of packets must be specified). The inter-packet gap (IPG) and Delay to return before error must be specified. The program will send loopback packets to selected radios one at a time. It will hold back on sending the next packet until the first has arrived and the IPG timer has expired or the Delay to return before error timer has expired without receiving a reply, at which time the error counter for that radio is incremented. The user may select Scan channel where PWET will request the coordinator to measure RF energy (ED) of each of the IEEE 802.15.4 2.4GHz band channels and graph the results. It is important to note that measuring ED is valid only if there are no other radios transmitting within the network. When executing ED, the EWET program will halt the ZigBee stack by disabling interrupts, retrieve and store radio register values, force the radio into a receive mode at each channel, and have it execute an ED measurement. This is done by communicating directly to the radio. Once an ED measurement is completed, the original radio state is restored. The EWET will assemble a packet with the obtained ED information and transmit it to the PWET program via an ED type packet for display. The PWET also allows the user to locally log all the obtained data (except for ED), clear EWET counters and connect to the central program via the Internet. WET Program Setup

Figure 3-1 Local WET System Setup

It is expected that the coordinator is programmed with EWET code and is connected to a PC via RS-232 or USB cable. Other radios also programmed with EWET may be powered up. These

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radios will associate themselves with the established ZigBee network and transmit their status packets to the coordinator which will forward them to PWET for display and processing. WET Program Interface The physical interface between the PC and the coordinator is limited to RS-232 or USB connection simulating RS-232. Communication between the coordinator and other nodes is based on the ZigBee protocol. Each node in the network must be programmed with EWET in order to transmit and process packets from PWET via the coordinator. WET Program Limitations Energy Detection (ED) measurement requires all nodes within the network to stop transmitting before the ED measurement is valid. However, stopping transition by all nodes during ED measurement may impact the networks performance. Wet program is unable to change the active channel. Changing the active network channel dynamically will ensure gaining the benefit of ED measurement. To have reliable results of loopback measurement, all nodes must be commanded to stop transmitting their status during loopback measurement. In order to reduce interaction between loopback packets and status packets, care must be taken to efficiently make use of resources available to the radios microcontroller.

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CENTRAL NETWORK MONITORING
Central Features and Theory of Operation The Central program uses UBT as the base engine to generate, send and capture Ethernet TCP/IP packets. Once the TCP port is entered and the Receive button is selected, the program is enabled to initiate a TCP session with clients requesting to establish communication. On the client side, in order for PET and PWET to setup communication to the Central program, the user must first select the Network setup button. He/She must enter the IP address of the PC hosting the Central, its TCP port, and a unique Home ID (to identify the home where the client is residing) must be entered. Finally to enable communication, the Enable Network Communication box must be checked and the connect button must be selected. This will initiate a request to establish communication with the Central. If a home includes both PET and WET (HPAV and ZigBee systems) then two home ID must be reserved; one for each. The client will send its first status packet to register itself with the Central. The Central will respond by highlighting a home icon and displaying the new clients homeID, and will retransmit the received packet to the client in the case of PWET, and will send a status request in the case of PET. For PWET the control of the local program is transferred to the Central. In order to initiate a command on the Central program for either PWET or PET, the highlighted icon corresponding to the house of interest needs to be selected where a command window(s) similar to those of the client will appear. Selecting a Central PWET home Icon, will display monitoring and command windows. The monitoring window will display status information periodically as it does on the client but at a slower rate (about once every three seconds). The command window is used to send commands to the PWET client. In the case of the PET program, only one window will be displayed. All commands available to local clients for both the PET and PWET programs are also available via Central PET and WET for the exception of Energy Detection ED which is only available via local PWET. A packet from a client is received by the Central program in two segments: the header and body. The Header has the same size across all client types and includes the same parameters. It includes homeID, Client type (PET, WET), structure Size and Structure type (WET status, PET status, SNR and ToneMap). Once the header is received, the program can prepare to receive the body of the packet based on the information embedded within the header. It identifies which home icon the received packet belongs to based on the homeID, and prepares to support either WET or PET protocol. If the incoming packet is of a WET type, then the program can support a WET status packet, if it is PET type, it can support PET status, PET SNR or PET ToneMap packet structures. The Central program, based on the information provided by the header, will reserve memory to store the incoming packets body. It will check if the GUI of the home icon is enabled. If so it

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will display information provided by the incoming packets body. It will also store it in a designated logging file if logging is enabled for that particular home. The program assembles the returned packet based on the protocol of the incoming packet to which it belongs. In the case of WET, if the GUI of that particular home is not enabled, it will simply return the packet as it was received. If the GUI is enabled, the state of the command window is used to update the returned packet. In the case of PET, if the GUI of the home identified by HomeID is not enabled, a status request is sent in response to the incoming packet. If the GUI is enabled, it will check if a request for SNR or Tone Map is available. If not, a request for status is sent. Otherwise a SNR or Tone Map request is sent. Central Program Setup In order to run the Central program and have clients connect to it over the Internet, the router must be setup to forward the selected TCP port to the IP address of the PC where the Central is running. Central Program Interface Connection of the Central program and the Internet is based on TCP IP Ethernet type of packets. Central Program Limitations There would be an advantage if Central is modified to be a Web based program. This will require a change in the overall structure of the remote monitoring implementation. The home and Central programs must be changed to clients to a web server known as Traffic Aggregator.

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TRAFFIC AGGREGATOR
Traffic Aggregator (TA) Features and Theory of Operation The Traffic Aggregator (TA) application is based on the UBT engine, and receives and transmits Ethernet TCP IP packets. The traffic aggregators main purpose is to collect traffic from all homes and concentrate it in one stream that can be directed to a specific PC that is hosting the Central program. The current TA architecture has two sections, Server and Client. The Server is used to have all the homes direct their traffic toward it by using the TAs IP address and designated TCP port. The TA server will collect the traffic and forward it to its Client (TF), which will send it to Central by specifying Central's IP and TCP port. The Central will operate as a Server. It will receive and process the traffic as described in the previous section. The total system structure is depicted in the following figure.

Figure 5-1 System Overall Diagram

Traffic Aggregator Program Setup In order to run the Traffic Aggregator program and have clients connect to it over the Internet, the router must be setup to forward selected TCP port traffic to the IP address of the PC where the Traffic Aggregator is running. The IP address and TCP port of the Central PC must be entered in order to forward the aggregated traffic to the Central program.

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Figure 5-2 Traffic Aggregator Interface

Traffic Aggregator Program Interface Connection of the Traffic Aggregator program and the Internet (home clients and the central programs) are based on TCP IP Ethernet type of packets.

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CONCLUSION AND PROPOSED FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
The combination of WET (PWET and EWET), PET, Central and Traffic Aggregator TA programs are valuable tools to evaluate HAN systems. They are able to collect important parameters, perform long-term logging and enable current and future prediction of communication health of the network. These programs can be easily adopted to evaluate NAN and even WAN systems. This is true since the communication's parameters that need to be monitored are the same for all. The internal program structure for the Central is designed in such a way that it can facilitate support for other protocols or applications. It will require further development to support other protocols such as Wi-Fi, WiMax, ERT and other protocols and applications. Remote communication over the Internet can be easily ported to any Ethernet TCP/IP based network such as a utilitys network. Further it can be modified to monitor a utilitys equipment for evaluation of long term monitoring and control. It can also be adopted to simulate DR signal propagation and evaluation. Suggested future development can include: PET Proposed future Improvements Add more Features to PET such as QOS and security configuration To improve PETs Lab usability, each AC slot can have its own Tone MAP as opposed to displaying the average of all slots Add features to enable communication channel quality between nodes that are not connected to the unit where the PET program is connected Add more Physical interfaces that will allow the PET program to interface to other popular PLC technology such as Lon Works and other Since the PET program has an Ethernet interface, it can be ported to other communication platforms that also support Ethernet such as Wi-Fi and WiMax.

WET Proposed future Improvements Add the ability to change the active channel dynamically Add support for SEP1.0 (2.0)

Central Proposed future Improvements

Convert the system structure to support web based monitoring

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Include communication heart beat to the home Icons. Also provide an alarm (such as audio, email cell phone text message) if the heart beat stops Include support for parameter limits. A set of limits can be entered and the program will compare it with incoming values. If these values are outside these limits, then the program can issue an alarm (such as audio warning, email or cell phone text message). These limits can be based on protocol and even equipment manufacturer. Include a logged data processor. This processor can analyze logged data automatically. Develop Linux based PET and PWET applications to run on a low cost embedded single board computers. This also helps in embedding these applications in actual products such as electrical meters or thermostats.

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A
UBT/PET USER MANUAL
Note: This user manual is for a tool that is continuously evolving. It describes currently available functionality and the content of the user manual is expected to be updated periodically to explain new features and services. Introduction These tools include two programs the Ur Bandwidth Test (UBT) and Power line communication evaluation tool (PET). The UBT is an Ethernet base test tool; it simulates layers 3 to 7 of the OSI Stack, and is able to generate and capture traffic at the MAC layer (layer 2). It primarily uses ICMP type packets for communication evaluation. It involves connecting two computers across an Ethernet network of interest. The computer where the user is located is labeled local while the second is labeled Remote. UBT allows the user to control and monitor traffic of both local and remote systems from the same machine simultaneously. It has the option of selecting packet size and number of bits per second to be sent across the network. Another option includes auto network parameters detection (local and remote MAC address as well as local IP address), Batch processing and logging. It also supports filtering incoming traffic based on IP or MAC address. The PET tool uses UBT as the base engine to generate, send and capture packets over an Ethernet connection. There are many Ethernet packet types defined by a 16-bit EtherType field within an Ethernet packet. Code 88E1 is an EtherType that is reserved for HomePlug. To support this project, the packet generation engine of the UBT has been modified to support Ethernet packets of this HomePlug type. HomePlug supports a set of messages referred to as Management Message Entry (MME). These messages are used to manage, configure and monitor a HomePlug network. These messages are transported via HomePlug type Ethernet packets. The PET program uses these messages, MMEs, to identify the nodes on the network and, based on the users command selection, interrogate each node within the network to obtain its statistics counters, Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) or Tone Map between two nodes. The PET is a tool used to evaluate PLC type of communications PHY /MAC of the protocols supported while the UBT is intended to measure the protocols application layer performance. Currently the PET program supports HomePlug AV with the following functionality: HPAV statistics HPAV Signal to noise ratio (SNR) HPAV ToneMap

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UBT UBT is a low cost and easy to use program designed as a tool to debug and evaluate Ethernet (A family packet-based computer networking technologies for Local Area Networks [LANs] 1) network connections. It is designed to determine the connection functionality, throughout (bandwidth) and type of service provided as a function of packet size. UBT can be used in wireless as well as with other Ethernet connection technologies to determine basic functionality and optimum settings. UBT helps in determining network bottlenecks, functionality type of service rules and network elements limitations. UBT is an essential tool for network software and hardware development, wireless compliance testing as well as installation and deployed network monitoring and testing. Operation Systems Supported: UBT is PC based software that will run under Windows NT4, NT2000, Windows XP and Windows7 platforms. Notes: 1. Running the program on Windows7, find the PET.exe file, (usually it is in c://programs/PET), right-click, go to properties, compatibility. Change from the list to windows XP. 2. Some security settings might stop Wincap program for setting up. You might need to go to the installation package and install it manually (see installation).

HARDWARE: Its performance is limited by the speed of the processor and the resources available to it, the minimal recommended to use a system is a 1 GHZ processor and 128 Megabytes of RAM.

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Figure A-1 UBT/PET Main GUI

This is the first GUI presented by PET/UBT program. This is the point where UBT or PET testing can be selected. Click on HPAV, The program will progress to HPAV Test. If UBT test is intended than Modify add# must be selected first if this is the first time to setup support for the connected network. Otherwise Set Address can be selected to activate the selected network address as shown below. HomePlug AV (HPAV) Tests To initiate HPAV testing (PET), press: UBT SET UP/MODIFY ADDRESS: This option is to setup network information manually or automatically. To setup network information Press: The following Dialog will appear The following GUI will be presented

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Figure A-2 Entering Network Information GUI

For Manual network configuration, the user must enter IP address and MAC source and destination address of the local and remote machines as well as selecting the network interface device in both the local and the remote machines. For automatic network detection, the user must enter destination IP address and press Detect parameters. Note: The two machines (local and remote) must be able to ping each other in order for the auto network detection to work. If you are planning to transmit traffic, you will need to know the source and destination MAC and IP addresses, they can be obtained from CMD window (DOS window) by typing ipconfig /all. Destination IP address can be obtained by one of the following methods. Obtaining the destination IP address by typing ipconfig/all at the destination PC and enter the MAC and IP addresses manually or allow the UBT program to determine it by entering the destination IP address and select Detect Parameters.

Once the network has been detected the user must: Enter a label for reference only (optional) Enter Type of service

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Type of packet ICMP or UDP. If UDP is selected, the UDP source and destination ports must be entered: Select Filter 1 Select Filter 2 Select to enable/disable filter by TOS

Note: the current version has been characterized for ICMP type of traffic. It is suggested to use it at this time. Once OK is selected the program will update the pre-selectable address. Now the user may select one of the selectable addresses and the program will update the system and the application window (UBT results display) will be displayed. If the System Options System default is set to establish communication on startup default for both the local and the remote systems and the UBT is running on the remote system, the network flag will indicate the network is up. UBT uses the filters to monitor the incoming traffic. To monitor all incoming traffic to the system by set Filter 1 and Filter 2 to source MAC or source IP. The filters are based on the data the user has entered for the MAC and IP address, if they are incorrect UBT will not be able to detect the traffic coming to the system. The following are options available to the local site. After the adapter has been selected, the MAC and IP address as well as the filters have been set or select the applicable preset addresses. It is also possible to access the address list by selecting Local Site Local Address. UBT will not receive the correct traffic unless the MAC and IP addresses are entered and the filters are setup. In order for the program to operate properly the local and the remote system must be able to ping each other and each system has selected the correct Network Adapter Source and destination MAC address. Source and destination IP address.

STARTING UBT PROGRAM Before UBT can function properly the following must be done successfully: The correct Ethernet Adapter selected (see Select the Correct Adapter). The correct source and destination MAC and IP address, type of packet, and Filter 1 and Filter 2 are entered in both local and remote site machines. Transmitted Traffic will not be graphically displayed unless Include TX in graph option is enabled. The default statistics is based on 64 bytes packets; to get correct graphical representation of the traffic the correct packet size must be selected. ( the default can be changed by going to system_option -> system defaults)

Note: If the correct Ethernet adopter is not selected the program will not operate

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To start UBT's traffic generation and reception press one of the SET Address form the address selection.

For Example Press to load the pre set network information to the program using the following dialog boxes will show.

1 2

Figure A-3 UBT Results Display

1-Local 1 Mb/S 2-Press TX Enable 3-150 bytes (packet size) TX ENABLE: From the command window the user may enable TxEnabled. This selection will enable transmitting traffic based on the packet size and traffic speed in bits per second selected earlier.

Please note that transmitted traffic will not be displayed graphically unless include Tx is enabled.

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INCLUDE TX IN GRAPH: From the command window, the user may enable Include TX in graph. When this option is selected the graph will display the transmitted traffic. Please note when this selection is enabled the graph will display the sum of transmitted and the received traffic. To distinguish between transmitted and received traffic use the numerical stat. LOCAL TRAFFIC Note that these options are the same for the local as well as the remote site (remote site communication). The command window refers to the window to the right of the graphs in the application window.
PACKET SIZE

From the command window the user may select the packet size amount from the pull down menu. The user may select the following packets sizes: 64,150, 250, 500, 1000 and 1500 bytes. Then select the packet size used to generate the transmitted traffic. It is also used to scale the graphical display as a percent of full channel capacity.
LOCAL SITE

Local site refers to the machine that the user is working on and Remote machine is the one that is been communicated with over the network. The following are the options available to the local machine.
TRAFFIC AMOUNT

From the command window the user may select the traffic amount from the pull down menu. The user may select 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 Mb/s. Traffic that will be sent when TxEnabled.

Note: each machines transmitting and receiving accuracy is dependent on its available processing power and applications running on during testing. Some speed values may be greater than that of wire speed. In that case it indicates that UBT is running freely. CHANNEL CAPACITY The default is 10BaseT but the user may select 100BaseT. This selection will set the graphs x and y-axis scales.

Note sending and receiving 100baseT level traffic will require a high performance system.

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EST. COMM

This button is used to establish communication between local and remote machines. This will allow statistics of the remote machine to be displayed locally. Include Inter Comm. The purpose of this feature is to indicate if intercommunication between local and remote machine is to be included or not as part of the indicated statistic. RstRmt#pkt This feature is used to reset statistics. Rmt Statis This feature is to enable remote statistics.
BATCH

Is to indicate Batch processing status activated by selecting from the main menu Sys_option-> Batch_state.
LOGGING

This window is to indicate logging status. Can be activated by going to the main menu and selecting System_options->Data log.
SYSTEM DEFAULTS

System defaults can be set by going to the main menu selecting System_options->defaults. Changing adopter/addresses When the local graph is in focus (selected), go to local_site_>local address. Changing Graphical scale When local graph is in focus go to Local_site of the main mane->switch scale. This will toggle the graphs scale between 10BaseT and 100BaseT. This can also be done on the remote graph by selecting remote graph (bring it into focus) go to remote_site of main menu and select switch scale.
NUMERICAL STATISTICS

Twelve windows in the command window are used to display numerical statistics. The top six are for the local site and the lower six are to display the statistics of the remote site. Of each of the six the top three displays received traffic statistics and the other three displays transmitted statistics. Each set of three displays: bits per second, packets per second and the total number of packets that have been processed. Int. com is used to include or exclude UBT internal network communications. It is also possible to enable the sound that gives a sound pitch that corresponds to the number of bits received per second (operational under windows NT). This option helps the user to get a sound feedback when doing adjustments away from the system. An amplifier may be used if necessary to boost the sound and or a wireless head set. Note that when the sound is enabled the stat result will be less accurate (This feature is not supported on Windows 95/98/CE).
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REMOTE SITE The user is able to control the remote computer by adjusting the remote commands from the local machine. It is interesting to note that the same options that are available for the local site are also available for the remote site. If you have a weak connection to the remote site, and an acknowledgement for sending a command has not been received the status window indicates the link is down. It is possible that the remote system did receive the command but the local system did not receive the acknowledgement. Also a command is included in the remote site to establish internal communication. This command will update the local site with the remote state. STATUS BOX Status box is used to indicate the remote link status if it is up or down. It uses the status of the previous communication attempt. If the status of the current attempt is needed the update button needs to be selected. It also indicates the number of command tries it did to send a command across the link. The status of the Batch command is also shown. It shows if a batch command is enabled and if it is active. WAN APPLICATION This program may also be used in WAN (Wide Area Network is a computer network that covers a broad area/any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional and/or national boundaries so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in other locations) testing applications. To go through a router, a UDP port must be set through the router and the firewall to enable the traffic to go through. PET To initiate HPAV testing (PET), press: The following GUI will be presented

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2 6

1 5

Figure A-4 PET Program Main GUI

To activate testing the following steps need to be followed:

Step 1 Select the Net Device. Step 2 Select the node Step 3 Get SNR (to retrieve SNR information) Step 4 Select Tone Map to see the Tone map window (to display tone Map info) Step 5 To connect to the Internet (or Intranet) if remote monitoring is needed; Press ->Network Setup: to configure the IP and port of the central monitor. Step 6 Setup Remote monitoring network connection information in the window presented. Blinking sign means it is connected to the server.

Select Network Device (HomePlug network device) As in Step 1, select the device interfacing to HomePlug network from pull down list. Selecting Node of interest As in Step 2, select node of interest to which SNR and Tone Map measurements can be made between it and the node connected to machine making the request.

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SNR Measurement Once HPAV interface device and the node of interest are selected, when the SNR button shown in Step 3 is selected the SNR results will be displayed in SNR results windows (Bottom left of HPAV main GUI). Tone Map Measurement Once HPAV interface device and the node of interest are selected, when button shown in step 4 is selected, a Tone graph will be shown. The values on the right indicate an estimated percentage of channel capacity assuming 150 Megabits per second throughput relative to 7 bits per tone for each of the 917 available tones.

Figure A-5 Tone Map Graph

Connecting to the Internet Select Network Setup. The following dialog will appear 3 2 1 4 5

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Figure A-6 Select Central IP and TCP Addresses

Step 6.1 Select the central IP address Step 6.2 Select the port number Step 6.3 Add the home ID Step 6.4 Enable network comm. Step 6.5 Press connect Once the program is connected over the network, a blinking indicator will show indicating successful communication between the PET program and the central node. PET Logging To configure logging select Enable logging
Enable Logging window:

The following window will appear to enable logging options. The logging period may be selected as: 10 s, 1 min, 1 hr, or 24 hrs. A current logging session can be stopped by deselecting all types of tests. Logging will produce files "username_HP_Stat.log" for statistics, t_HP_LCL_SNR.log for SNR and t_HP_LCL_TMAP.log for Tone Map which includes the collected data in the selected directory.
3 1 2 4

Figure A-7 HPAV Logging GUI

Select one or all the following for logging a data to a text file. The text file is readable in MS Word format.

1-Press Stat (Enable Statistics) 2-Press SNR (Signal Error ratio) 3-Tone map data 4-Press Star/Stop logging

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WIRELESS EVALUATION TOOL (WET) USER MANUAL AND INTERFACE GUIDE REV 1.8
Note: This user manual is for a tool that is continuously evolving. It describes currently available functionality and the content of the user manual is expected to be updated periodically to explain new features and services as they are incorporated. This is the interface specifications to current Wireless Evaluation Tool (WET). It is expected to be modified in the future to add more features. For further info, please contact EPRI (or UrElectronics) for the latest update. The following chapters are intended for WET users: Introduction Local PWET System Configuration Remote (Central) WET Server

The following chapters are intended for the embedded application developers: Interface Specifications Types of Packets Embedded Program Structure

The remaining chapters are purely informational. Introduction The Wireless Evaluation program (WET) is used to evaluate wireless systems. Its current version targets IEEE 802.15.4 based technologies such as ZigBee. It has the ability to support local evaluation as well as remote monitoring over the network (including the Internet). The current version assumes a pure RS-232 or RS-232 over USB and can be modified to support native USB in the future. A complete evaluation system includes three sections: Local PC based Wireless evaluation tool (PWET), remote monitoring (Central Server) and an in the Radio embedded application called Embedded Wireless Evaluation Tool (EWET). This document include the user manual for both the local and remote ( home and central) programs as well as physical interface requirements and suggested application flow chart. It is expected that the PWET system will be interfacing directly to the home coordinator or to a client radio that connects to the coordinator with the ability to forward parameters to the local PWET program. The program has the ability to collect and log the following data forwarded form the coordinator radio: Radios Extended address Radios Short address
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PanID Channel mask. Working channel Parent short address RSSI LQI Latency Throughput Number of times the radio has re-initialized Number of times a packet had to be resent Number of times a packet has failed to be transported within a set number of retries. Has the ability to collect ED on each of the channels ( REV1.8 ED measurement is optional on the EndDevice and the Router) Optional Battery value Temperature value Light value

Local PWET System Configuration The local PC is expected to connect to the coordinator using a RS-232 connection. The connection can be a USB simulating a com port. Once the Coordinator is connected to XPwindows enabled PC and the PWET program is installed, it can be executed. The coordinator can wirelessly communicate with up to 4 other platforms.

Figure B-1 Overall Test Setup

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In order to Configure the local system PWET after having the physical connections installed, these steps can be followed. Select the Com Port Incase of a RS-232 interface, this dialog will automatically appear when loading the program to select the appropriate com port:

Figure B-2 Com Port Selection

Com Port Setup Once the COM port is selected and the OK button is clicked, the COM port setting dialog box will appear. The current version supports baud rate of 38400, 8-bit data, parity none, 1 stop bit, and Handshaking off.

Figure B-3 Com Port Setting Setup

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ZigBee Test Selection Window Once the COM port settings are selected and the OK button is clicked the following dialog box will appear. If the radio is connected and the embedded program EWET is installed the MAC address radios will appear in ascending order. It will also have the background color of the MAC window blinking between pink and green indicating the reception of a valid packet.

Figure B-4 ZigBee Test Selection

Test Execution Coordinator Connection: Once the coordinator is connected and powered up, Node 1 color will alternate between green and pink indicating PC communication to coordinator has been established. The RSSI number is updated periodically. When no other nodes are powered up this value represents the Energy Detection (ED) in the vicinity of the coordinator. However, once other nodes are powered up, this value may indicate the signal strength of the communicating radio. Delay for Return Before Error Specifies the amount of time in ms for the return packet as result of transmitting a loop back packet before indicating an error. RSSI and LQI Values: These numbers indicate the RSSI and the LQI values reported by each node. Lp_Back Success: Indicates the total number of packets successfully transmitted and received as a result of the loop back test. LP_Back Error: Total number of unsuccessful transmissions. No returned packet was received within the specified delay for return before error occurred during loop back test.

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ED/RSSI Graph: Selecting Graph of the coordinator without enabling other nodes will give a true Energy detection (ED) measurement. ED is an indication of the noise in the vicinity of the coordinator. If other radios are enabled, this graph will indicate the received signal strength to the coordinator. This graph on other nodes will indicate the signal strength received from the coordinator. In order to have this graph function properly Inc (include) must be selected. Other Radios Enabled: When other radios configured as part of the network are enabled and powered up they will be listed in ascending order of their network ID. Also the corresponding node window background will be alternating between green and pink indicating that a successful transmission has been received by the coordinator for that node. Loopback Test: The Inc (include) selection is used to select the radios that are selected to participate in the loopback test. Loopback test will help determine the throughput and latency to each node. The latency indicated to the coordinator represents the minimum latency for communication between the computer and the coordinator and should be subtracted from the latency to other radios. In order to have an accurate latency and throughput measurement Status enable must be disabled. To run the loopback test after selecting participating nodes, and the packet size ( in rev 1 the packet size is fixed), and the maximum acceptable delay beyond which it is considered a failure and inter packet gap IPG is set, either Continuous TX (Free Run) TX or Limited TX can selected. In Continuous TX run, a packet is sent to each node in sequence. When the packet is received from the first node a packet is sent to the next enabled node (Inc selected) after the expiration of IPG. This process will run until it is stopped. In Limited TX the process will stop after the specified number of packets is sent to the enabled nodes.

Radio RSSI and ED Graph For radios other than the coordinator, when the Graph option is selected, it will plot the RSSI value (yellow) of each nodes communication from the coordinator. In order to make the coordinator ED measurement valid all other nodes need to stop transmitting.

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Figure B-5 ED Polar Plot at the Coordinator

Figure B-6 RSSI Plot for Nodes Other than the Coordinator

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Enable Log Enable local logging on selected directory and file name Enable NET: Enable network communication to the Central server. A valid IP address and TCP port must be specified as well as the HomeID and Nickname. Currently the program supports home IDs between 2000 and 2049.

Figure B-7 Network Connection Setup

Scn_Chnls: Scan channel request channel scan from the Coordinator. Each channel is scanned In order to have an accurate measurement all other radios within the network must not be transmitting for the duration of this measurement.

Figure B-8 Scan All Channels Graph

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Clr Stat Clears displayed statistics. Existing radios information within the network is preserved. CLr ALL Clears display statistics as well as existing radios information. It is important that status reporting is enabled prior to selecting this option. Otherwise the radios will have to be rest manually in order to have its information sent to the local PWET program. Proposed IEEE 802.15.4 Counters The following list includes the counters proposed by the IEEE 802.15.4 Working Group in 2010: TX Number of packet transmitted from the radio to PWET not including status packets. RX Number of packets received by the radio from PWET. Re try once Number of packets that had to be retransmitted once. Multi re Try Number of packets that had to be retransmitted more than once. TX Fail Number of transmitted packets failed. Dup RX PCKT Number of packets received multiple times. FCS RX Fail Number of packets received with failed CRC. SEC RX Fail Number of packets received with failed security.

NetWork Re Init Number of times the network had reinitialized. Btry Battery voltage Remote (Central) WET Server This Program is used to continuously monitor and log the status of up to 50 homes (clients) remotely via an Intranet or the Internet. Upon executing the program the following window will appear:

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Figure B-9 Central Main Window

The first step is to enable network communication by selecting RCV ON. At this point the server will be listening to the network for homes attempting to make a connection. Each Home using network set will have the service IP address and TCP port set. Once the network communication corresponding to an icon is established, it will change state as indicated by the top left icon. Once the home has made connection the user may click on any of the icon that are lit up. The command and monitor windows will appear as shown below:

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Figure B-10 Remote Command and Monitor Windows

At this point it is possible to monitor the Homes state in real time or execute loop back test, monitor the RSSI, have channel scan or enable data logging for later analysis. Each homes data is stored in a file at a selected directory with a specified file name which will have the home ID appended to it. The features of the buttons on the command window are the same as those available on the local window Interface Specifications This section is intended to help developers to build embedded applications (EWET) on their platform to interface to the WET tool. Introduction The ZigBee platform communicates with the host PC hosting PWET by sending packets over the serial interface (UART). Packets structure is described in the later in this document. Packets from the PWET to the ZigBee coordinator platform may include commands or loopback data. Commands types described by flow charts shown below. The Status packets are sent by the coordinator and nodes which are part of the network to PWET over the UART com port. Status packet will continue to be sent to PWET unless disable status is sent.

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Figure B-11 EWET Software Flow

The figure above shows embedded application (EWET) shown in green running on the ZigBee platform. The application block calls the ZigBee stack to access the data, status and MAC metrics. It formats the data into packets as described below in section 3.4 and sends the resulting packet to the host PWET through the UART hardware. Specific PWET Behavior Types of Packets Accepted The Program accepts three types of packets: 1. Status packets AppMessage_t type shown below 2. Loopback packets App_rx_Message_t type shown below 3. Respond to command packets Packet Type Identification The program identifies three types of packets by examining data [0]. 4. If data [0] = 5. If data [0] = 6. if data[0] = 7. If data [0] = 8. If data [0] = 0 It is a status packet. 1 it is a loopback packet. 2 Channel scan data 3, data [1] =1 Enable status. 3, data [1] =0 Disable status.

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9. If data [0] =

4 Clear IEEE statistics.

10. Other values reserved for future features. Graph and Data Update Period The program updates the graph and other values every 1.2 seconds for the status packet or every time a loopback packet is received. Listed Nodes Order The program will list the radios in ascending order of short addresses. Each radio must have a distinct short address and will display the bottom 16 bits of its extended address. Packet Start and Stop Code Each packet that will be sent via the serial interface to PWET hosted by the PC must start with 0x10, 0x02 as a header and end with 0x0a, 0xb0 and checksum (this rev does not examine the checksum). This is sent in addition to the packet type structure. Serial Interface Setup The serial interface will be Baud rate 38400 1 Stop bit. Parity None. Data bits 8.

Packet Items Processed The program at this time limits it processing to the following items: extAddr; shortAddr; parentShortAddr; LQI; 0 to 255. 255 defined as excellent link quality. RSSI; -110= -110dm, 0=0dbm; one dbm resolution. Transmitted on data [3] status packet data [0..40]. data[0] is used to identify packet type data [0] =0 status packet data [0] =1 (loopback), the program evaluate data [1 loopback data size]. The program sends a fixed packet size; it is up to the coordinator to adjust the transmitted packet size.

Types of Packets All received and transmitted packets by PWET and EWET are of AppMessage_t structure shown below. Packet type is identified by data[0]. The following are valid and accepted by PWET:

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Status Packet (Data[0]=0) The following assignment of data[0..40] for a status packet sent by EWET to PWET.
Index: 0 octets: 1 Frame Type 0: Status 1 1 Revision 0 2 1 Size 42 3 1 ED/RSSI 4..35 32 MAC Metrics 36..37 2 (reserved) 38 1 num_reinitialized 39..40 2 Error Detect 0

Figure B-12 Status Packet Data [0..40] Block Definitions

Data Field description for Status Packet FrameType: Revision: Size MAC Metrics Error Detect 0 1 42 <variable> <reserved> // one for rev 1.0 revision of protocol // Size of data field 0 - 41 for Status // see MAC Metrics definition below //: set to 0

MAC Metrics (32 bit field in status packet)

Index:-0 octets: 4 macRetry Count 4 4 macMultip leRetryCo unt 8 4 macTXF ailCount 12 4 macTXSuc cessCount 16 4 macFCS ErrorCo unt 20 4 macSecu rityFailu re 24 4 macDupl icateFra meCount 28 4 macRXS uccessC ount

Figure B-13 MAC Metrics Definition

Loopback Packet (Data[0]=1) The PWET program evaluates data [1 loopback data size]. The program sends a fixed packet size; it is up to the coordinator to adjust the transmitted packet size. Channel Scan Packet (Data[0]=2) Scan Channel command Request packet (from PWET to the coordinator EWET). data [0] =2 other data values are dont care Scan channel command Response (from the coordinator to the WET program) data [0] =2; data [1] =X; data [2] = channel 11 (2405 MHz) energy. data [3] = channel 12 (2410 MHz) energy. data [4] = channel 13 (2415 MHz) energy.

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data [5] = channel 14 (2420 MHz) energy. data [6] = channel 15 (2425 MHz) energy. data [7] = channel 16 (2430 MHz) energy. data [8] = channel 17 (2435 MHz) energy. data [9] = channel 18 (2440 MHz) energy. data [10] = channel 19 (2445 MHz) energy. data [11] = channel 20 (2450 MHz) energy data [12] = channel 21 (2455 MHz) energy. data [13] = channel 22 (2460 MHz) energy. data [14] = channel 23 (2465 MHz) energy. data [15] = channel 24 (2470 MHz) energy. data [16] = channel 25 (2475 MHz) energy. data [17] = channel 26(2480 MHz) energy. Enable/ Disable Status (Data[0]=3) Enable / disable request command packet type and data field definition If data [0] =3, data [1] =1 Enable status. Data [2..41] dont care. If data [0] =3, data [1] =0 Disable status data [2..40] dont care. No response from EWET for this command Clear IEEE802.15.4 Counters (Data [0]=4) Clear IEEE802.15.4 counter request command packet type and data field definition If data [0] =4 Clear IEEE statistics. Data [1..41] dont care Other Data[0] Codes are Reserved Embedded Program Structure The Coordinator embedded program will receive data and command from the PC windows based WET program.

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Figure B-14 Rev 1.0 Coordinator Program Flow Chart

The coordinator will communicate with router and EndDevice Nodes as shown in the following program flow chart of each:

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Figure B-15 Rev 1.0 EndDevice Node Program Flow Chart

Figure B-16 Rev 1.0 Router Program Flow Chart

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PWET and EWET packet structure The following are the structures of each type of packets The windows program will send a two byte header prior to the packet 0x10 0x20 It will also send three bytes as the footer 0x0a 0xb0 0xcc // check sum location. The program currently sends code 0x0cc instead of check 0xsum While the radio will send a two byte header prior to the packet 0x10 0x02 It will also send three bytes as footer 0x0a 0xbo 0xsum // the program currently does not examine the check sum Status packets structure:
typedef struct{ uint8_t messageType; // uint8_t nodeType; // ExtAddr_t extAddr; // ShortAddr_t shortAddr; // uint32_t softVersion; // uint32_t channelMask; // PanId_t panID; // uint8_t workingChannel; ShortAddr_t parentShortAddr; uint8_t data[41] uint8_t lqi; int8_t rssi; uint8_t boardType; uint8_t sensorsSize; struct { uint32_t battery; uint32_t temperature; uint32_t light; } sensors; } PACK AppMessage_t; One byte One byte eight bytes Two bytes Four byte Four byte One byte // One byte // two byte // actual data 41 bytes // One byte // One byte this byte is spare RSSI // is transmitted on data[3] // One byte // One byte // // // // four byte four byte four byte One byte

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Data Field Structure

typedef struct{ uint8_t FrameType; uint8_t Revision; uint8_t Size; uint8_t not used; MAC_Metrics_data_t MACMetrics; uint32_t reserved; uint8_t num_re_initialized uint16_t ErrorDetect; } PACK packet_data_t; typedef struct{ uint32_t macRetryCount ; uint32_t macMultipleRetryCount; uint32_t macTXFailCount; uint32_t macTXSuccessCount; uint32_t macFCSErrorCount ; uint32_t macSecurityFailure; uint32_t macDuplicateFrameCount; uint32_t macRXSuccessCount; } PACK MAC_Metrics_data_t; // One byte data[0] // One byte data[1] // One byte data[2] // One byte data[3] // 32 byte data[4..35] // two byte data[36..37 // one byte data [38] // Two bytes data[39..40] // rev 1 does not process these bytes

// // // // // // // //

Four Four Four Four Four Four Four Four

byte byte byte byte byte byte byte byte

data[4..7] data[8..11] data[12..15] data[16..19] data[20..23] data[24..27] data[28..31] data[32..35]

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CENTRAL MONITOR/SERVER

Figure C-1 Central Main GUI

Buttons Description TCP port: TCP port number to receive packet from client. This number should match the same in the client side Receive?: Press on this button to accept connection with the client side Global Log: To log on the remote server. Cancel: Exit (without saving the last changes) OK: Exit

C-1

: Home button represents a monitored home /client. When the connection is active the button will change color to green. Press the home button to see the client data. Each home represents a Home ID number.

C-2

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