SIMPLELINK-CC13XX-CC26XX-SDK: Tuxniffer: the capabilities of the SmartRF Packet Sniffer 2, but through a terminal on Linux for the CC13XX, CC26XX and Launchpad

Part Number: SIMPLELINK-CC13XX-CC26XX-SDK

Tool/software:

Hello All E2E Community Members,

A significant percentage of the tools made by TI are available on Linux, but not the SmartRF Packet Sniffer 2 - And there is no easy-to-use alternative to it.

Over the past month, I have developed a tool called Tuxniffer that aims to replicate the capabilities of the SmartRF Packet Sniffer 2 for Linux, focusing on the CC13XX, CC26XX, and Launchpad families.

Code: https://github.com/AcenoTecnologia/tuxniffer

Tuxniffer is capable of, among other things:

• Supporting multiple devices simultaneously with different radio modes for each.
• Storing packets in a .pcap file that can be opened using Wireshark.
• Viewing packets live in Wireshark through pipes.
• Configuring radio modes for different packet types per device.
• Configuring the time interval between file generations (none, hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly).
• Splitting device data into different files/pipes or merging it into a single file.
• Supporting .YAML config files and CLI usage.

Tuxniffer also includes instructions on how to compile TI Wireshark plugins on Linux.

During the development of this software, several issues were found with TI documentation about both the sniffer and the CC13XX, CC26XX, and Launchpad families, which I would like to bring to your attention:

1. The baud rate presented in the firmware documentation (Texas Instruments\SmartRF Tools\SmartRF Packet Sniffer 2\docs\user_guide\html\sniffer_fw\firmware\command_interface.html) is 921600, but the firmware source code uses 3000000 .
2. Despite showing a state machine with a PAUSED state in the documentation (Texas Instruments\SmartRF Tools\SmartRF Packet Sniffer 2\docs\user_guide\html\sniffer_fw\firmware\functional_description.html), the firmware source code doesn't have one. Therefore, neither pause nor resume commands exist.
3. The PHY code provided in the documentation (Texas Instruments\SmartRF Tools\SmartRF Packet Sniffer 2\docs\user_guide\html\sniffer_fw\firmware\command_interface.html - Table 8) for IEEE 802.15.4 2.4 GHz band O-QPSK is 0x11, but in reality, it is 0x12. This discrepancy is because the SmartRF Packet Sniffer 2 by TI has a radio configuration for IEEE 802.15.4 915 MHz GFSK 200 kbps after 0x0C, causing an offset of 1 to all subsequent values. This configuration is not in the reference/documentation but can be selected in the software. The Radio Mode table below is already fixed.
4. The packet response documentation (Texas Instruments\SmartRF Tools\SmartRF Packet Sniffer 2\docs\user_guide\html\sniffer_fw\firmware\command_interface.html - Table 19) states that the response frame data payload has the format: Timestamp (6B) | Payload (0-2047B) | RSSI (1B) | Status (1B). In reality, it is Timestamp (6B) | Separator (1B) | Payload (0-2047B) | RSSI (1B) | Status (1B). The usage of the separator was not found. Considering it as either Timestamp or Payload does not work, as the Timestamp becomes incorrect, and the Payload does not match the FCS at the end of the frame (last 2B of payload).
5. While this software was developed using the CC1352P7-1 model, the CC1352P1 model was also used for tests and validation. An issue found is that on Windows, with the original SmartRF Packet Sniffer 2, the CC1352P1 could not run any 2.4GHz modes despite having support. The solution for this issue can be found here, but it was never patched in the software release.

Hope that this code is useful in some way.

Regards,

Rafael