Using the Wi-SUN Network Measurement Application#

NOTE: This section replaces AN1364: Using the Wi-SUN Network Measurement Application. Further updates to this application note will be provided here.

The Wi-SUN Network Measurement Application provides a simple tool for testing Silicon Labs Wi-SUN FAN (Wireless Smart Ubiquitous Network, Field Area Network) stack performance. Using the IPv6 ping capability, the application can trigger round-trip latency tests within a Wi-SUN mesh network. It provides information about the packet error rate, Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) routing metrics, average ping latencies with different neighbors, and more. To do so, the application exposes two interfaces: a Command Line Interface (CLI) and the WSTK mainboard LCD screen.

The Wi-SUN FAN stack is supported on the EFR32FG12 and EFR32MG12 devices. The radio boards used must support one of the sub-GHz bands.

Silicon Labs recommends that you review the Quick Start Guide to familiarize yourself with the Silicon Labs Wi-SUN stack and Simplicity Studio 5 before reading this document.

The following features are provided as part of the Wi-SUN Network Measurement application:

  • Transmits pings and receives pong replies.

  • Computes ping latencies.

  • Configures the number of pings to be sent during a test.

  • Configures the ping payload size.

  • Configures the devices to target with the ping packets.

  • Provides the minimum, maximum, and average ping latencies on a given test.

  • Provides the ping error rate, the MAC-level packet error rate, and RPL metrics.

  • Enables access to the previous features through an LCD screen or a CLI. In addition to these features the Wi-SUN Network Measurement application behaves like a standard Wi-SUN router once connected to a Wi-SUN network. During the connection steps, it automatically selects a suitable parent to connect to the network. When connected, it can be selected by another Wi-SUN device to be its parent.

The Wi-SUN Network Measurement application requires you to have at least two WSTK mainboards and two preferably from the following list of matching radio boards:

  • brd4163a

  • brd4164a

  • brd4170a

  • brd4172a

  • brd4173a

  • brd4253a

  • brd4254a