GPS Synced Sniffer

Some boards are equipped with a GPS module allowing a precise time synchronization. This example shows how to use the GPS Synced Sniffer software on IoT-LAB A8-M3 boards.

Content imported from https://github.com/iot-lab/openlab/blob/master/appli/iotlab_examples/gps_synced_sniffer/README.md

The code is located in the iot-lab/openlab repository examples: gps_synced_sniffer

The hardware architecture is presented here.

This type of node with GPS is mandatory for this example. If you want how to verify the GPS signal see the FAQ.

Prerequisites

• Tutorial : Submit an experiment with A8 nodes using the web portal
• Tutorial : Get and compile a M3 Firmware code

Overview

The software is divided in 4 components:

• radio sniffer outputing zep on serial line
• gps timestamping library
• control_node_i2c library to get current time
• serial2loopback.py script wrapping zep as udp

Running a demo

1 . Grab two A8 nodes in rocquencourt - all have GPS

• 1 sniffer node (M3 on A8 and A8 with GPS required)

• 1 emitter node (M3 only required) nodes need to be in range radio-wize

    ssh rocquencourt.iot-lab.info
    <login>@rocquencourt:~$ experiment-cli submit -d 15 -l rocquencourt,a8,2+3
  

Note: use auth-cli if this is a first time init

2. Build M3 firmware files

<login>@rocquencourt:~$ git clone https://github.com/iot-lab/openlab.git
<login>@rocquencourt:~$ cd openlab/ && mkdir build.a8
<login>@rocquencourt:~/openlab/$ cd build.a8/ && cmake .. -DPLATFORM=iotlab-a8-m3
<login>@rocquencourt:~/openlab/build.a8/$ make tutorial_a8_m3 gps_synced_sniffer

3. Check that both nodes have booted

<login>@rocquencourt:~$ ping node-a8-2
<login>@rocquencourt:~$ ping node-a8-3

4. Copy firmwares and scripts on A8 nodes

<login>@rocquencourt:~/openlab/build.a8$ cp bin/gps_synced_sniffer.elf ~/A8/
<login>@rocquencourt:~/openlab/build.a8$ cp bin/tutorial_a8_m3.elf ~/A8/
<login>@rocquencourt:~/openlab/build.a8$ cp ../appli/iotlab_examples/gps_synced_sniffer/serial2loopback.py ~/A8/

5. Setup sniffer node

ssh rocquencourt.iot-lab.info
ssh root@node-a8-2
root@node-a8-2:~# flash_a8_m3 ~/A8/gps_synced_sniffer.elf
root@node-a8-2:~# ~/A8/serial2loopback.py &
root@node-a8-2:~# tcpdump -vvv -i lo

6. Send a packet from emitter

ssh rocquencourt.iot-lab.info
ssh root@node-a8-3
root@node-a8-3:~# flash_a8_m3 ~/A8/tutorial_a8_m3.elf
root@node-a8-3:~# miniterm.py --echo /dev/ttyA8_M3 500000
<type return to stop help screen>
<type 's' to send radio packet>
<type crtl-] to exit>

7. Check the raw tcpdump output

root@node-a8-2:~# tcpdump -vvv -KA -i lo
tcpdump: listening on lo, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes
.+17:51:10.808502 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 0, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 82)
    localhost.localdomain.49020 > localhost.localdomain.17754: UDP, length 54
E..R..@.@.<..........|EZ.>.QEX........)..CJ..................Q..Hello World!: 4...
.+17:53:58.547894 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 0, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 82)
    localhost.localdomain.49020 > localhost.localdomain.17754: UDP, length 54
E..R..@.@.<..........|EZ.>.QEX........)...M.3................Q..Hello World!: 5...

Note 1: the “.+” in the tcpdump trace above are generated by serial2loopback.py.

Note 2: serial2loopback.py declares a (silent) UDP listener on port 17754 so as to avoid local IP stack ICMP errors messages.

8. Inspect sniffer packets using wireshark

• make sure you have wireshark installed on your PC and stop tcpdump command on A8 node

• make sure you have ~/.ssh/config configured as follows:

    Host node-a8-*.rocquencourt.iot-lab.info
      User root
      ProxyCommand ssh rocquencourt.iot-lab.info -W %h:%p
      StrictHostKeyChecking no
  

then, in another terminal, on your PC:

Start remote tcpdump and pipe output to local wireshark

ssh node-a8-2.rocquencourt.iot-lab.info tcpdump -U -i lo -w - | wireshark -k -i -

• click “start” in the wireshark interface.

• Send packets from emitter

  • Send some packets (type ‘s’ or ‘b’)
  • See timestamp, sequence number (UDP packets)

wireshark shows timestamp, sequence number, messages data for received packets in ZEP format (Zigbee Encapsulation Protocol)

Note : If you have wireshark GTK error with ubuntu 14.04 you can type before wireshark command $ export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0