A Highly-Configurable, Low-Cost Wireless Probe

The significant increase in the use of IEEE802.11 wireless networks across a wide range of devices and topologies has highlighted the need for a versatile platform for the analysis of the network's operation. As the platforms and scenarios using the standard expand, the traditional approach of testing the physical layer of connection requires augmentation with a more flexible solution which can operate at the higher layers of the networking stack. The distributed wireless probe shown here provides a firmware based solution that provides an easily reconfigurable and scalable platform for analyzing the operation of a wireless network in-situ.