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Utility Programs and Bash Scripts

9. Utility Programs and Bash Scripts#

Revised on Nov. 16, 2023

9.1. 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

Hint

UDP-Forwarder and UDPRemoteLogger are fully open-sourced at wifisensing/PicoScenes-PDK

9.2. 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.

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