Wextool Logo
Wireless Experimentation Tool



Wextool aims to let experimenters set up, run and analyze the results of wireless experiments. It is a flexible, scalable and Open-Source tool that covers all the experimentation steps, from the definition of the experiment scenario, to the generation, storage and analysis of results.

Wextool was developed as part of the PLECS initiative, an INRIA's ADT (Action de Développement Technologique) driven by the PLANETE Project-Team.





Wextool in a nutshell


Experimental Process
Basically, a wireless experimentation with Wextool is composed of four different steps: First, you have to create (or describe) the experimentation scenario, by specifying the layout, the nodes, the functions and the actions to perform within the experimentation. Second, the experimentation is run at the time specified in the experimentation scenario. During the run, wireless probes are used to collect data traces and to characterize the environment. Third, when the experimentation phase is over, the different data traces are filtered, synchronized, and the result is inserted within a database. Fourth, the data analysis phase can start and the results can be plotted and stored.
 
xml_file
In the first step, the experimentation scenario is described using the xml format. The xml file containing the Layout definition, the Node configuration and the experimentation description is stored on the Wextool site.
 
 
 
 
experimentation
 In the second step, the experimentation scenario is executed.  Wextool reads the experimentation scenario and schedules the  actions to be run on the different nodes involved in the experimentation.
 
 
 
postprocessing
 
Once the experiment is complete, Wextool inserts the data that has been captured during the experiment into a database,  performing
merging and synchronization
of the different data traces.
 
  
analysis

 Afterwards, Wextool allows to filter, analyse and extract statistics from the database and also to generate graphs along with  standard output files.

 

 

Finally, filtered packet logs, statistics and results from the experiment can be stored within a database. The objective is to save enough information in order to possibly reproduce the same experimentation with similar network conditions and possibly at different places by different researchers.

Wextool is easily extensible. Indeed, new protocols and corresponding insertion/extraction modules can be added  using simple rules.


Licencing:  Wextool is free software, provided under the GNU GPLv2  license and is publicly available for research, development, and use.


Related papers:  D. Dujovne, T. TurlettiW. Dabbous, "Experimental Methodology for Real Overlays", Real Overlays And Distributed Systems (ROADS) Workshop, Warsaw, Poland, July 11-12 2007, also available as the INRIA Research Report No RR-6667 at http://hal.inria.fr/inria-00326400/en/.



A short description of Wextool is available here

Very basic slides of Wextool can be downloaded here.

First release: wextool-1.0 (November 7, 2008):  sources (client, server) and rpm for FC7/8/9.

If you have Mercurial already installed, you can also try "hg clone http://freehg.org/wextool/"


Send any questions or requests to: mailto://wextool-dev@sophia.inria.fr