| Sniff ZigBee Packets | | Print | |
| Written by Akiba | |
| Saturday, 06 September 2008 | |
|
When engineers tackle a project that uses ZigBee communications
they may get a surprise. Unlike point-to-point communications,
ZigBee involves a network that can establish nodes, repeaters and
complex mesh topologies. The proper test tools--often called
"sniffers"--help engineers diagnose ZigBee-network problems that
could otherwise turn into nightmares.
Microchip Technology includes the ZENA Wireless Network Analyzer with its PICDEM Z demonstration kit so engineers can see what goes on among ZigBee devices. The ZENA tool also can sniff and decode Microchip's MiWi protocol that, like ZigBee, uses IEEE 802.15.4 radios. According to Steve Bible, an applications engineering manager at Microchip, ZENA time stamps packets and displays them in a graphical format. " The screen shows the destination and source addresses, the payload and the data," explained Bible. "We add some color coding and provide data as hexadecimal values. Users also see a received signal strength indication, or RSSI--an uncalibrated relative value." ... "ZigBee and IEEE 802.15.4 technologies require a shift in how we analyze and manage ad-hoc wireless networks," said Matt Perkins, VP of technology development at Awarepoint, a supplier of wireless asset-tracking systems. "An analyzer should take time-sliced snapshots of network traffic, 'mine' the traffic for metrics such as throughput, bottlenecks and end-to-end delays, and presents information in a concise graphical form." Link Hits: 342 Trackback(0)
Comments (1)
 Write comment
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comment form
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
The ZENA software also functions as a node setup . Select the type of node, what profile and end points its using, mac address and it generates the relevant c source files for you to program into your micro.