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there are interoperability issues that must be dealt with.
The homegrown hex dumps and trace tools from the early days of Bluetooth just are not good enough anymore.
And building a good protocol analyzer is not easy. So stack vendors are partnering with Frontline. This permits the
stack vendors to concentrate of improving their stack.
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.
TELEDYNE LECROY Appendicies
231 Frontline BPA low energy Hardware & Software User Manual