Teledyne Lecroy Frontline 802.11 Mounting instructions

Hardware and Software User Manual
Revision Date: 12/14/2016

Copyright © 2017 Teledyne LeCroy, Inc.
FTS, Frontline, Frontline Test System, ComProbe Protocol Analysis System and ComProbe are registered
trademarks of Teledyne LeCroy, Inc.
The following are trademarks of Teledyne LeCroy, Inc.
lProbeSync™
The Bluetooth SIG, Inc. owns the Bluetooth® word mark and logos, and any use of such marks by Teledyne LeCroy,
Inc. is under license.
All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
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Contents
Chapter 1 Frontline Hardware & Software 1
1.1 What is in this manual 2
1.2 Computer Minimum System Requirements 2
1.3 Software Installation 2
Chapter 2 Getting Started 3
2.1 802.11 Hardware 3
2.1.1 Attaching Antennas 3
2.1.2 Connecting/Powering the Frontline 802.11 4
2.1.3 Setting Up for ProbeSync™ 5
2.2 Data Capture Methods 7
2.2.1 Opening Data Capture Method 7
2.2.2 Frontline® 802.11 Data Capture Method 9
2.2.3 Virtual Sniffing 10
2.3 Control Window 10
2.3.1 Control Window Toolbar 11
2.3.2 Configuration Information on the Control Window 12
2.3.3 Status Information on the Control Window 12
2.3.4 Frame Information on the Control Window 13
2.3.5 Control Window Menus 13
2.3.6 Minimizing Windows 17
Chapter 3 Configuration Settings 19
3.1 802.11 Configuration 19
3.1.1 Wi-Fi Scanner Hardware Settings 19
3.1.2 802.11 I/O Settings - Datasource 19
3.1.3 Wi-Fi Device - MAC Address Editor 35
3.2 Decoder Parameters 36
3.2.1 Decoder Parameter Templates 38
3.2.2 Wi-Fi Security Decoder Parameters 40
3.2.3 Adding or Changing TCP/UDP Port Assignments 42
3.2.4 Determining Master and Slave 43
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3.3 Conductive Testing 43
3.3.1 802.11 WiFi Conductive Testing 44
Chapter 4 Capturing and Analyzing Data 47
4.1 Capture Data 47
4.1.1 Air Sniffing: Positioning Devices 47
4.1.2 Capturing Data to Disk - General Procedure 49
4.1.3 Capturing Using Frontline Wi-Fi Datasource with Wireshark® 51
4.1.4 Combining BPA 600, 802.11, and HSU with ProbeSync 54
4.1.5 Sodera & 802.11: Capturing with ProbeSync 56
4.1.6 Extended Inquiry Response 56
4.2 Protocol Stacks 57
4.2.1 Protocol Stack Wizard 58
4.2.2 Creating and Removing a Custom Stack 59
4.2.3 Reframing 60
4.2.4 Unframing 60
4.2.5 How the Analyzer Auto-traverses the Protocol Stack 61
4.2.6 Providing Context For Decoding When Frame Information Is Missing 62
4.3 Analyzing Protocol Decodes 62
4.3.1 The Frame Display 62
4.3.2 Coexistence View 97
4.4 Analyzing Byte Level Data 131
4.4.1 Event Display 131
4.4.2 The Event Display Toolbar 132
4.4.3 Opening Multiple Event Display Windows 133
4.4.4 Calculating CRCs or FCSs 133
4.4.5 Calculating Delta Times and Data Rates 134
4.4.6 Switching Between Live Update and Review Mode 134
4.4.7 Data Formats and Symbols 135
4.5 Data/Audio Extraction 139
4.6 Statistics 142
4.6.1 Statistics Window 142
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4.6.2 Session, Resettable and Capture File Tabs 145
4.6.3 Copying Statistics To The Clipboard 146
4.6.4 802.11 Error Statistics 146
4.6.5 Graphs 146
4.6.5.2 Printing Error Graphs 147
Chapter 5 Navigating and Searching the Data 149
5.1 Find 149
5.1.1 Searching within Decodes 150
5.1.2 Searching by Pattern 152
5.1.3 Searching by Time 154
5.1.4 Using Go To 156
5.1.5 Searching for Special Events 157
5.1.6 Searching by Signal 158
5.1.7 Searching for Data Errors 162
5.1.8 Find - Bookmarks 164
5.1.9 Changing Where the Search Lands 165
5.1.10 Subtleties of Timestamp Searching 166
5.2 Bookmarks 166
5.2.1 Adding, Modifying or Deleting a Bookmark 166
5.2.2 Displaying All and Moving Between Bookmarks 167
Chapter 6 Saving and Importing Data 169
6.1 Saving Your Data 169
6.1.1 Saving the Entire Capture File 169
6.1.2 Saving the Entire Capture File with Save Selection 170
6.1.3 Saving a Portion of a Capture File 171
6.2 Adding Comments to a Capture File 171
6.3 Confirm Capture File (CFA) Changes 172
6.4 Loading and Importing a Capture File 172
6.4.1 Loading a Capture File 172
6.4.2 Importing Capture Files 173
6.5 Printing 173
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6.5.1 Printing from the Frame Display/HTML Export 173
6.5.2 Printing from the Event Display 176
6.6 Exporting 177
6.6.1 Frame Display Export 177
6.6.2 Exporting a File with Event Display Export 177
Chapter 7 General Information 181
7.1 System Settings and Progam Options 181
7.1.1 System Settings 181
7.1.2 Changing Default File Locations 185
7.1.3 Side Names 187
7.1.4 Timestamping 188
7.2 Technical Information 191
7.2.1 Performance Notes 191
7.2.2 Progress Bars 192
7.2.3 Event Numbering 192
7.2.4 Useful Character Tables 192
7.2.5 DecoderScript Overview 195
7.2.6 Bluetooth low energy ATT Decoder Handle Mapping 195
Contacting Technical Support 196
Appendicies 199
Appendix A: Application Notes 200
A.1 ComProbe Automation Server: Why use it? 202
A.1.1 Automation Server Topology 203
A.1.2 Writing Automation Script 203
A.1.3 Running Automation Server Script 205
A.1.4 Saving Automation Captured Data 208
A.1.5 Keeping Track of Events 210
A.1.6 Automation Can Save Time and Money 210
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Chapter 1 Frontline Hardware & Software
Frontline Test Equipment family of protocol analyzers work with the following technologies.
lClassic Bluetooth
lBluetooth low energy
lDual Mode Bluetooth (simultaneous Classic and low energy)
lBluetooth Coexistence: Bluetooth with 802.11 Wi-Fi
lBluetooth HCI (USB, SD, High Speed UART)
lNFC
l802.11 (Wi-Fi)
lSD
lHSU (High Speed UART)
The Frontline hardware interfaces with your computer that is running our robust software engine called the
ComProbe Protocol Analysis System or Frontline software. Whether you are sniffing the air or connecting directly
to the chip Frontline analyzers use the same powerful Frontline software to help you test, troubleshoot, and
debug communications faster.
Frontline software is an easy to use and powerful protocol analysis platform. Simply use the appropriate Frontline
hardware or write your own proprietary code to pump communication streams directly into the Frontline
software where they are decoded, decrypted, and analyzed. Within the Frontline software you see packets,
frames, events, coexistence, binary, hex, radix, statistics, errors, and much more.
This manual is a user guide that takes you from connecting and setting up the hardware through all of the
Frontline software functions for your Frontline hardware. Should you have any questions contact the Frontline
Technical Support Team.
Frontline 802.11 Hardware & Software User Manual 1

1.1 What is in this manual
The Frontline User Manual comprises the following seven chapters. The chapters are organized in the sequence
you would normally follow to capture and analyze data: set up, configure, capture, analyze, save. You can read
them from beginning to end to gain a complete understanding of how to use the Frontline hardware and software
or you can skip around if you only need a refresher on a particular topic. Use the Contents, Index, and Glossary to
find the location of particular topics.
lChapter 1 Frontline Hardware and Software. This chapter will describe the minimum computer
requirements and how to install the software.
lChapter 2 Getting Started. Here we describe how to set up and connect the hardware, and how to apply
power. This chapter also describes how to start the Frontline software in Data Capture Methods. You will be
introduced to the Control window that is the primary operating dialog in the Frontline software.
lChapter 3 Configuration Settings. The software and hardware is configured to capture data. Configuration
settings may vary for a particular Frontline analyzer depending on the technology and network being sniffed.
There are topics on configuring protocol decoders used to disassemble packets into frames and events.
lChapter 4 Capturing and Analyzing Data. This Chapter describes how to start a capture session and how to
observe the captured packets, frames, layers and events.
lChapter 5 Navigating and Searching the Data. Here you will find how to move through the data and how to
isolate the data to specific events, often used for troubleshooting device design problems.
lChapter 6 Saving and Importing Data. When a live capture is completed you may want to save the captured
data for future analysis, or you may want to import a captured data set from another developer or for use in
interoperability testing. This chapter will explain how to do this for various data file formats.
lChapter 7 General Information. This chapter provides advanced system set up and configuration information,
timestamping information, and general reference information such as ASCII, baudot, and EBCDIC codes. This
chapter also provides information on how to contact Frontline's Technical Support team should you need
assistance.
1.2 Computer Minimum System Requirements
Frontline supports the following computer systems configurations:
lOperating System: Windows 7/8/10
lUSB Port: USB 2.0 High-Speed or or later
The Frontline software must operate on a computer with the following minimum characteristics.
lProcessor: Core i5 processor at 2.7 GHz
lRAM: 4 GB
lFree Hard Disk Space on C: drive: 20 GB
1.3 Software Installation
Download the installation software from FTE.com. Once downloaded, double-click the installer and follow the
directions.
Use this link: http://www.fte.com/80211-soft.
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Chapter 2 Getting Started
In this chapter we introduce you to the Frontline hardware and show how to start the Frontline analyzer software
and explain the basic software controls and features for conducting the protocol analysis.
2.1 802.11 Hardware
2.1.1 Attaching Antennas
When you remove the Frontline 802.11 from the box, the first step is to attach the antennas (Figure 2.1).
Figure 2.1 - Front Panel
1. Attach an antenna to each front panel connector.
Frontline 802.11 Hardware & Software User Manual 3

Figure 2.2 - Frontline 802.11 with both antennas attached
2.1.2 Connecting/Powering the Frontline 802.11
Once you have attached the antennas, the next step is to power up and connect the Frontline 802.11 to the
computer.
1. Insert the power cable (DC connector) from the 12 volt AC adapter into the Power port on the Frontline
802.11 back panel (Figure 2.3).
Figure 2.3 - Back Panel - Power
2. Plug the 12 volt AC adapter into the AC power source. The front panel Power light illuminate (Figure 2.1).
3. Insert the USB cable into the USB port on the Frontline 802.11 back panel (Figure 2.4).
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