LeCroy UWBTracer™ Ultra Wideband Protocol analyzer

Protocol verification for Certified Wireless USB (WUSB) and WiMedia Ultrawideband applications

The UWBTracer system is the industry's most advanced analysis tool for radio-based communications using WiMedia Alliance's Ultra Wideband (UWB) common radio platform and Certified Wireless USB protocol. The UWBTracer's extensible design provides for future upgrades as the needs of early adopters change and this new communication standard matures.

Key Features

• Captures traffic between multiple Wireless USB endpoints within a WiMedia cluster
• Designed to help verify interoperability between Wireless USB devices
• Supports the latest WiMedia and Certified Wireless USB Specifications
• RF listening technology is completely non-intrusive within the wireless USB network
• Displays hierarchical views of WiMedia and the USB IF’s Wireless USB protocol using the CATC Trace™ display
• Interchangeable RF modules allow swapping of radio front ends to add support for future changes in the RF specifications
• Isolate specific areas of interest with real-time triggering on Beacon frames, WiMedia, and encrypted Wireless USB link and transaction events
• Pre-capture filtering excludes non-essential and redundant packets from the trace to focus the analysis effort
• Provides quick-glance bus activity using a real-time statistics display
• Traffic Summaries automatically report error rates and protocol level metrics that are linked to trace level detail
• Full support for Certified Wireless USB Security, including 4-way encryption handshake and USB cable association option

The UWBTracer system captures and decodes WiMedia and certified wireless USB protocol using the CATC Trace display (Click on image to enlarge)

LeCroy UWBTracer™ / UWBTrainer™Ultra Wideband Protocol analyzer and Traffic Generator

The UWBTracer/Trainer is the first fully integrated analyzer - exerciser combination designed for cradle-to-grave verification of WiMedia devices. The exerciser is also based on a plug-in module design that installs in the CATC 5K expandable chassis. The UWBTrainer can operate as a standalone generator; or when configured with the companion UWBTracer analyzer module, can simultaneously record and transmit WiMedia packets. When not using the Generator, the exerciser hardware can serve as a 2nd analyzer channel. This dual recording capability is useful for debugging hidden-neighbour and channel switching algorithms.

The UWBTrainer allows users to transmit custom packets with low-level control of headers, payload, timing and channels. Exerciser test scenarios can be authored using either a text or graphical interface. In both cases, sophisticated, multi-stage traffic generation scripts can be developed using boolean expressions including IF-THEN logical branching and compound WAIT states. This flexible system is capable of monitoring multiple concurrent link states to effectively emulate the most complex device behaviors. The ability to dynamically extract header or data strings from received packets (RX) and use in transmitted (TX) packets reduces the need to manually configure dynamic fields - like addresses. A library of predefined test scenarios including source code is provided allowing developers to adapt the suite for their own specific applications.

Key Features

• Integrated analyzer / Exerciser configuration allows simultaneous transmit and record in a single system
• Export UWBTracer analyzer recordings to exerciser format to quickly re-create test sequences

Flexible and Extendable Analysis Platform

UWBTracer is designed to verify functionality and interoperability between WiMedia devices. It also provides capture of wire line MAC-PHY interface (MPI) traffic to assist early adopters integrating the first prototype UWB radio components. The combination of radio-based analysis as well as MPI recording allows the UWBTracer to bridge early MAC PHY integration projects with full-fledged wireless device validation needs.

Small, and portable, this flexible platform offers pluggable modules that allow users to upgrade the system in the field. This enables LeCroy to deliver the industry’s first wireless analyzer that supports interchangeable RF modules from alternate PHY vendors. The ability to purchase additional radio modules allows users to upgrade the analyzer front end to support future changes in the UWB specifications or to optimise compatibility with their current test environment.

Solve MAC-PHY integration issues with two-channel recording

The MPI option is supported through a special cabled interface that taps between MAC and PHY components. The MPI capability thoughtfully includes a junction box, allowing the MPI tap to be positioned close to the physical link while minimising the cable length the MPI signal must pass. Connectors are included to support either 40-pin IDE, 68-pin or 60-pin Hirose connections. The MPI capture offers packet level visibility to both MAC and PHY header fields. The software can show MPI frames in a chronological view as well as grouping WiMedia events into the logical Wireless USB transfers.

The UWBTracer’s MAC-PHY Interface recording can operate concurrently with the over-the-air capture to effectively provide two independent recording channels. Using the MPI tap in conjunction with the over-the-air capture allows two recording points within a single logical link. Displaying both recording channels in a time synchronised display allows easier analysis of WiMedia packets as they move from the RF domain to the MAC layer. Multiple UWBTracer systems can also be cascaded allowing analysis of up to 4 wireless channels in a single synchronised display.

Certified Wireless USB Association & WiMedia Security

The UWBTracer now offers full support for Certified Wireless USB Association Models. This includes the ability to derive the Pair-wise Temporal Keys (PTK) for each session by using a Connection Context to decode the 4-way handshake. This enables UWBTracer to record and trigger on decrypted secured traffic in real time. Users can manually enter a Connection Context, before recording; or, for devices that use the Cable Association Model, users can purchase an optional plug-in for capturing the Connection Context using a wired USB tap. In both cases, the UWBTracer system stores the Connection Context for each host-device pair and automatically derives the session key for decrypting secure payloads.

Compliance Validation for Improved Wireless USB Interoperability

The CATC Trace software detects and alerts the user to potential violations at all levels of the protocol layering. The proper formation of each MMC is checked for validity and compliance to the specification, including validating FCS values.

For effective analysis of WiMedia flow control and channel efficiency, precise capture of timing information is required. UWBTracer captures all MMC timing elements including USB channel time. The CATC Trace software automatically calculates the time delta between frame duration and PHY_Active signal duration. For beacon frames, it provides full decoding of Distributed Reservation Protocol (DRP) and verifies that transmission timing adheres to DRP requests. By automatically verifying handshake packets against reported CTA Start time, UWBTracer helps ensure interoperability between wireless USB devices.