FrontLine BPA LOW ENERGY, Hardware User Manual

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The typical Bluetooth stack vendor provides a Windows-based SDK. The stack vendor interfaces their SDK to
ComProbe software by adding a very small amount of code to the SDK, somewhere in the transport area,
right about in the same place that HCI data is sent to the Host Controller.
If ComProbe software is installed on the PC and the Virtual sniffer is running then the data will be captured
and decoded by ComProbe software, in real-time. If ComProbe software is not installed or the Virtual sniffer
is not running then no harm is done. Virtual sniffing is totally passive and has no impact on the behavior of the
SDK.
One Frontline stack vendor partner feels so strongly about ComProbe software that not only have they built
Virtual sniffing support in their SDK, but they have made ComProbe software an integral part of their product
offering. They are actively encouraging all customers on a worldwide basis to adopt ComProbe software as
their protocol analysis solution.
A.3.8 Case Studies: Virtual Sniffing and Bluetooth Mobile Phone Makers
Case Study # 1
A Bluetooth mobile phone maker had been using a homemade HCI trace tool to debug the link between the
Host CPU in the phone the Bluetooth chip. They also were using an air sniffer. They replaced their entire
sniffing setup by moving to ComProbe software.
In the original test setup the Host CPU in the phone would send debug messages and HCI data over a serial
link. A program running on a PC logged the output from the Host CPU. To implement the new system using
Virtual sniffing, a small change was made to the PC logging program and it now sends the data to ComProbe
software using the Live Import API. The HCI traffic is fully decoded and the debug messages are decoded as
well.
The decoder for the debug messages was written using ComProbe software’s DecoderScript feature.
DecoderScript allows ComProbe software user to write custom decodes and to modify decodes supplied with
ComProbe software. DecoderScript is supplied as a standard part of ComProbe software. In this case, the
customer also created a custom decoder for HCI Vendor Extensions.
The air sniffer that was formerly used has been replaced by the standard ComProbe software air sniffer.
Case Study # 2
A second Bluetooth mobile phone maker plans to use Virtual sniffing in conjunction with a Linux-based
custom test platform they have developed. Currently they capture serial HCI traffic on their Linux system and
use a set of homegrown utilities to decode the captured data.
They plan to send the captured serial HCI traffic out of the Linux system using TCP/IP over Ethernet. Over on
the PC running ComProbe software they will use a simple TCP/IP listening program to bring the data into the
PC and this program will hand the data off to ComProbe software using the Live Import API.
A.3.9 Virtual Sniffing and You
If you are a Bluetooth stack vendor, a Bluetooth chip maker, or a maker of any other products where
integrating your product with ComProbe software’s Virtual sniffing is of interest please contact Frontline to
discuss your requirements. There are numerous approaches that we can use to structure a partnership
program with you. We believe that a partnership with Frontline is an easy and cost-effective way for you to
add value to your product offering.
If you are end customer and you want to take advantage of Virtual sniffing, all you need to do is buy any
Frontline
Bluetooth product. Virtually sniffing comes standard with product.
TELEDYNE LECROY Appendicies
213 Frontline BPA low energy Hardware & Software User Manual