UDP-Forwarder Plugin & UDPRemoteLogger

The UDP-Forwarder plugin can forward the received PicoScenes Rx frame to a remote computer via UDP. The UDPRemoteLogger program can listen to UDP and save the PicoScenes Rx frames to a .csi file on another machine. Their usage is straightforward.

The following command forwards the received frames to a remote machine with IP/port 192.168.10.10:50000.

PicoScenes "-d debug -i usrp --mode logger --freq 5190 --forward-to 192.168.10.10:50000"

The following command receives PicoScenes Rx frames from port 50000 and save to a .csi file.

UDPRemoteLogger --port 50000

Utility Scripts

Besides the PicoScenes main program, we also provide several handy bash scripts.

  1. switch5300Firmware: switch between the normal and CSI-measurement firmware for IWL5300 NIC

    CSI measurement on IWL5300 is powered by a special CSI measurement firmware, which cannot connect to the encryption-protected Wi-Fi network. To restore the regular connection, you have to switch to the ordinary firmware. This script does the firmware switch. It has three modes:

    • Running switch5300Firmware without argument will perform the auto-switching between the ordinary firmware and the CSI firmware.

        csi@csi-System:~$ switch5300Firmware 
  Current iwlwifi firmware is CSI measurement version,
  Switching to plain ordinary measurement version...
  Reloading iwlwifi module ...

  csi@csi-System:~$ switch5300Firmware # auto-switch to CSI firmware
  Current iwlwifi firmware is plain ordinary version,
  Switching to CSI measurement version...
  Reloading iwlwifi module ...

    • Run switch5300Firmware csi to force switch to the CSI firmware

        csi@csi-System:~$ switch5300Firmware csi
  Switching to CSI measurement version...
  Reloading iwlwifi module ...

    • Run switch5300Firmware ordinary to force switch to the ordinary firmware

        csi@csi-System:~$ switch5300Firmware ordinary
  Switching to plain ordinary measurement version...
  Reloading iwlwifi module ...

  2. array_status: list all PCI-E connected Wi-Fi NICs

    As discussed in Device Naming, PicoScenes uses an ID system to refer to the specific Wi-Fi NICs. array_status shows the PhyPath, DevId, PhyId, [MonId], Device MAC address (changeable), Hardware MAC address (unchangeable), Carrier Frequency, Bandwidth, and Model description for each NIC. The default parameter is all, which lists all NICs. The following is a sample output:

     csi@csi-System:~$ array_status
 Device Status of Wi-Fi NIC array "all":
 PhyPath DEV PHY [MON] DEV_MacAddr [MON_MacAddr] [CF] [BW] ProductName
 3 wlp3s0 phy5 00:21:6a:2a:8f:82 Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300 
 4 wlp4s0 phy1 00:16:ea:12:34:56 AR93xx Wireless Network Adapter 
 7 wlp7s0 phy6 00:16:ea:12:34:56 Wi-Fi 6 AX200

  3. array_prepare_for_picoscenes: Put the NIC into monitor mode, get them unmanaged by Network-Manager, and more …

    The most convenient CSI measurement mode for QCA9300 and IWL5300 is the packet injection-monitor mode. Some preparation needs to be done to put NICs in the CSI measurement mode, and array_prepare_for_picoscenes is the shortcut for the preparation. The following sample command prepares the NICs with PhyPath 3 and 4 for CSI measurement.

     csi@csi-System:~$ array_prepare_for_picoscenes "3 4" "5200 HT20"
 Change CPU frequency governor to performance ...
 CPU frequency governor has been set to performance for 10 core(s).
 Un-managing NICs from Network-Manager ...
 Unlocking RF-Kill...
 Disabling power management...
 Disconnecting Wi-Fi...
 Stopping monitor interfaces...
 Changing MAC address...
 Skip setting the mac address (00:16:ea:12:34:56) for Intel 5300 NIC (wlp3s0)...
 Adding monitor interfaces...
 Adding a monitor interface for phy1 (phy1), named phy1mon ...
 Adding a monitor interface for phy13 (phy13), named phy13mon ...
 Changing working frequency to 5200 HT20 ...
 Preparation is done.
 ----------------------
 Device Status of Wi-Fi NIC array "all":
 PhyPath DEV PHY [MON] DEV_MacAddr [MON_MacAddr] [CF] [BW] ProductName
 3 wlp3s0 phy13 phy13mon 00:21:6a:2a:8f:82 00:21:6a:2a:8f:82 5200 20 Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300 
 4 wlp4s0 phy1 phy1mon 00:16:ea:12:34:56 00:0e:8e:59:8a:b7 5200 20 AR93xx Wireless Network Adapter 
 7 wlp7s0 phy14 44:af:28:57:6c:9b Wi-Fi 6 AX200 
 ----------------------

    You may run array_prepare_for_picoscenes -h for help.

  4. RestoreNetwork: Restore ordinary Wi-Fi connection

    Run RestoreNetwork to remove all monitor interfaces, and restore the managed state of NICs from the system Network-Manager.