Linux.Desktop.Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 82. Link Monitoring in Linux with Wavemon

Monitor radio parameters in real time using
Wavemon, a curses-based tool
for Linux.

When using Linux, the standard wireless tools provide a wealth
of status information. These tools get their information from the
standard kernel interface /proc/net/wireless.
While ideal for providing pinpoint accuracy in measuring signal
strength and noise data, these tools are not designed to give an
indication of performance over time.

Wavemon (http://www.wavemage.com/projectsl) is a
terrific little tool that does precisely this. It polls
/proc/net/wireless many times each second to
give you a rolling report of how your wireless connection is
performing. Its simple curses interface keeps the code quite small
and is ideal for including in embedded distributions to get real-time
link data from remote access points.

The main interface provides a nice graphical representation of the
current link state (Figure 9-3).

Figure 9-3. Wavemon in action.

All of the statistics are updated in real time, making it ideal for
monitoring point-to-point links and fine-tuning antennas on long
distance shots. For an even easier to read display, hit F2 to bring
up the Level Histogram (Figure 9-4).

Figure 9-4. Pretty little scrolling waves of data.

This display is easy to read on a laptop even in bright sunshine,
making it an ideal tool for outdoor work. The histogram slowly sweeps
to the left, giving you a history of the last few moments of wireless
connectivity. Wavemon runs in a terminal, so you can easily run more
than one instance to monitor multiple radio links simultaneously.

When you need a high performance signal and noise meter for Linux,
Wavemon is hard to beat. The current version is available from
Freshmeat at http://freshmeat.net/projects/wavemon/.

Rob Flickenger