amprate(1) Qualcomm Atheros Open Powerline Toolkit amprate(1)
NAME
amprate - Qualcomm Atheros AR7x00 PHY Rate Monitor
SYNOPSIS
amprate [options] [device] [device] [...]
DESCRIPTION
The Atheros PHY Rate Utility polls one or more devices and prints the average transmit and receive PHY rates between a
device and each neighboring network device. Output is column-oriented and suitable for loading into a spreadsheet or
being read by a simple program.
This program is part of the Qualcomm Atheros Powerline Toolkit. See the plc man page for an overview and installation
instructions.
COMMENTS
This program version is identical to legacy program int6k, except for options -t and -T which use version 1 of the Qual‐
comm Atheros VS_NW_INFO vendor-specific message. Older firmware versions may not recognize this message version.
OPTIONS
-c Display coded PHY rates. Coded PHY rates are displayed by default so this option is redundant but it has been
kept for backword compatibility. This option and option -u are mutually exclusive.
-d seconds
Traffic duration in seconds per connection. Directional traffic is systematically sent between each pair of pow‐
erline network devices for this period of time. Consequently, the total time needed to generate traffic between
all network devices will be approximately n! times this value, so don''t get carried away. The minimum value is 1
second and the maximum value is 60 seconds.
-e Redirects stderr messages to stdout. By convention status and error messages are printed on stderr while primary
program output is printed on stdout. This option prints all output on stdout in cases where this is desired.
-i interface
Select the host Ethernet interface. All requests are sent via this host interface and only reponses received via
this host interface are recognized. The default interface is eth1 because most people use eth0 as their principle
network connection; however, if environment string "PLC" is defined then it takes precedence over the default
interface. This option then takes precedence over either default.
-n Reads the average transmit and receive PHY rate for wach device using VS_NW_INFO and prints it on stdout. Each
output line displays the ethernet interface, source address, destination address and either the transmit or
receive PHY rate.
-o milliseconds
Read timeout in milliseconds. Values range from 0 through UINT_MAX. This is the maximum time allowed for a
response. The default is shown in brackets on the program menu.
-r Reads device hardware and software revision information using VS_SW_VER and prints it on stdout.
-R Resets the device using VS_RS_DEV.
-t Generate powerline traffic between the local device and each remote device on each powerline network connected to
the host. It does not generate any traffic between remote powerline device pairs. This option is especially use‐
ful when remote powerline devices are not connected to Ethernet devices capable of sending traffic back to the
host.
-T Generate powerline traffic between all devices on each powerline network connected to the host. This option is
similar to option -t but it takes much longer because traffic is systematically generated between each pair of
powerline devices. Consequently, the time to complete will increase factorially as the number of network devices
increases. Such complete traffic path coverage is not always needed.
-u Display un-coded PHY rates. Coded PHY rates are displayed by default. This option and option -c are mutually
exclusive.
-q Enter quiet mode. Progress messages are suppressed.
-v Enter verbose mode. All Etherenet frames sent or received by the program are displayed on stdout.
-x Exit program on first error with a non-zero exit code. This option allows shell scripts to detect failed or
incomplete operations and take the appropriate action.
-?,--help
Print program help summary on stdout. This option takes precedence over other options on the command line.
-!,--version
Print program version information on stdout. This option takes precedence over other options on the command line.
Use this option when sending screen dumps to Atheros Technical Support so that they know exactly which version of
the Linux Toolkit you are using.
ARGUMENTS
device The MAC address of some powerline device. More than one address may be specified. If more than one address is
specified then operations are performed on each device in turn. The default address is local. See DEVICES for
information about symbolic device addresses.
DEVICES
Powerline devices use Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. A MAC address is a 48-bit value entered as 12 hexa‐
decimal digits in upper, lower or mixed character case. Octets may be separated with colons for clarity. For example,
"00b052000001", "00:b0:52:00:00:01" and "00b052:000001" are valid and equivalent.
The following MAC addresses are special and may be entered by name instead of number.
all Same as "broadcast".
broadcast
A synonym for the Ethernet broadcast address, FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. All devices, whether local, remote or foreign
recognize messages sent to this address. A remote device is any device at the far end of a powerline connection.
A foreign device is any device not manufactured by Atheros.
local A synonym for the Qualcomm Atheros vendor specific Local Management Address (LMA), 00:B0:52:00:00:01. All local
Atheros devices recognize this address but remote and foreign devices do not. A remote device is any device at
the far end of a powerline connection. A foreign device is any device not manufactured by Atheros.
REFERENCES
See the Qualcomm Atheros HomePlug AV Firmware Technical Reference Manual for more information.
EXAMPLES
The following example displays the average transmit and receive PHY rates from each of two devices. One is a local
device connected to interface eth2 and the other is a remote device at the far end of the powerline. In this case, they
are the only two devices on the powerline network. Observe the recipricol rates shown.
# amprate -ni eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:AA 00:B0:52:00:00:BB
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:AA 00:B0:52:00:00:BB TX 163 mbps
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:AA 00:B0:52:00:00:BB RX 176 mbps
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:BB 00:B0:52:00:00:AA TX 176 mbps
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:BB 00:B0:52:00:00:AA RX 163 mbps
The following example generates powerline traffic between the local device and each remote device because option -t is
present. It then displays the PHY rate read from the local device.
# amprate -tni eth2
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:AA 00:B0:52:00:00:BB TX 163 mbps
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:AA 00:B0:52:00:00:BB RX 176 mbps
DISCLAIMER
Atheros HomePlug AV Vendor Specific Management Message Entry structure and content is proprietary to Qualcomm Atheros,
Ocala FL USA. Consequently, public information may not be available. Qualcomm Atheros reserves the right to modify mes‐
sage structure and content in future firmware releases without any obligation to notify or compensate users of this pro‐
gram.
SEE ALSO
plc(1), amprule(1), ampstat(1), amptone(1)
CREDITS
Nathaniel Houghton <nhoughto@qca.qualcomm.com>
Charles Maier <cmaier@qca.qualcomm.com>
open-plc-utils-0.0.3 Mar 2014 amprate(1)