MESH PROFILING
An analysis device for analysing a communication network comprising a plurality of communication devices, the communication network being configured such that transport of packets through the network is provided by the communication devices in the network listening for and relaying packets, the analysis device being configured to: receive a traffic statistics log from a profile device, the traffic statistics log comprising a traffic statistics message from each of the plurality of communication devices, each traffic statistics message comprising data defining at least one reception property of the reception of at least one probe message at the respective communication device; and identify, based on the at least one reception property, at least one restriction point communication device from the plurality of communication devices that is a restriction point in the network.
1 . An analysis device for analysing a communication network comprising a plurality of communication devices, the communication network being configured such that transport of packets through the network is provided by the communication devices in the network listening for and relaying packets, the analysis device being configured to:
receive a traffic statistics log from a profile device, the traffic statistics log comprising a traffic statistics message from each of the plurality of communication devices, each traffic statistics message comprising data defining at least one reception property of the reception of at least one probe message at the respective communication device; and
identify, based on the at least one reception property, at least one restriction point communication device from the plurality of communication devices that is a restriction point in the network.
2 . The analysis device according to claim 1 , the analysis device being configured to:
calculate a network reception property for each different reception property received from the plurality of communication devices; and
identify at least one restriction point communication device that is a restriction point by selecting the at least one communication device from the plurality of communication devices that have at least one reception property that deviates from the at least one network reception property by a predetermined threshold value.
3 . The analysis device according to claim 2 , the analysis device being configured to:
calculate each network reception property by taking the average of the respective reception property received from each communication device; and
identify at least one restriction point communication device that is a restriction point by selecting the communication devices that deviate from that average by a predetermined threshold value.
4 . The analysis device according to claim 1 , the analysis device being configured to:
send a configuration message to each of the at least one restriction point communication device, the configuration message comprising data instructing the restriction point communication device to increase that communication device's duty cycle.
5 . The analysis device according to claim 4 , wherein the restriction point communication device listens for messages only a proportion of the time and the instruction to increase that device's duty cycle comprises an instruction to listen for a larger proportion of the time.
6 . The analysis device according to claim 1 , the analysis device being configured to:
generate a recommendation message comprising data containing a recommendation to install another communication device near each restriction point communication device; and
send the recommendation message to a presentation device for display to a user of the mesh network.
7 . The analysis device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one reception property comprises at least one of: a number of unique messages received at the respective communication device, a number of repeated messages received at the respective communication device, a number of unknown network messages received at the respective communication device, and the average received signal strength of the messages received at the respective communication device.
8 . The analysis device according to claim 1 , wherein the traffic statistics log comprises a reliability property for the communication network which is based on a number of probe messages that the profile device receives a response to; and the analysis device is configured to identify at least one restriction point communication device based on the reliability property.
9 . The analysis device according to claim 1 , wherein the traffic statistics log comprises a delay property for the communication network which is based on the difference between receive times at which the probe messages are received by the respective communication devices and send times at which the probe messages are sent by the profile device; and the analysis device is configured to identify at least one restriction point based on the delay property.
10 . The analysis device according to claim 1 , wherein the traffic statistics log comprises values of the lifetime field of the probe messages as received by an addressed communication device; and the analysis device is configured to identify at least one restriction point based on the averaged value of the lifetime fields.
11 . A communication device capable of communicating over a communication network comprising a plurality of communication devices, the communication network being configured such that transport of packets through the network is provided by the communication devices in the network listening for and relaying packets, the communication device being configured to:
send a plurality of probe messages for transmission through the communication network;
send a traffic statistic request message to each of the plurality of communication devices; and
receive a traffic statistics message from each of the plurality of communication devices, each traffic statistics message comprising data defining at least one reception property of the reception of at least one of the probe messages at the respective communication device.
12 . The communication device according to claim 11 , the communication device being configured to:
form a traffic statistics log message the traffic statistics log comprising the traffic statistics messages from each of the plurality of communication devices; and
send the traffic statistics log message to an analysis device.
13 . The communication device according to claim 11 , the communication device being configured to:
form the plurality of probe messages so that each probe message comprises data containing a unique identifier that identifies that particular probe message separate from the others of the plurality of probe messages.
14 . The communication device according to claim 13 , the communication device being configured to:
form the plurality of probe messages so that the unique identifier is an incremental count which increases sequentially in turn for each sent probe message.
15 . The communication device according to claim 11 , the communication device being configured to:
form the plurality of probe messages so that each probe message comprises data containing an address field specifying the address of at least one communication device that the probe message is addressed to, and the address field contains an address of at least one of the plurality of communication devices;
receive a probe message response for at least one of the plurality of probe messages from the at least one addressed communication device, each probe message response comprising data containing the unique identifier of the probe message that the probe message response is a response to; and
calculate a reliability property for the communication network based on a number of distinct unique identifiers that are present in the probe message responses.
16 . The communication device according to claim 11 , the communication device being configured to:
form the plurality of probe messages so that each probe message comprises data containing a sent time at which that particular probe message is sent by the communication device.
17 . The communication device according to claim 11 , the communication device being configured to:
form the plurality of probe messages so that each probe message comprises data containing an address field specifying the address of at least one communication device that the probe message is addressed to, and the address field contains an address of at least one of the plurality of communication devices;
receive a probe message response for at least one of the plurality of probe messages from the at least one addressed communication device, each probe message response comprising data containing a receive time at which that particular probe message is received by the communication device; and
calculate a delay property for the communication network based on the difference between the receive time and the sent time of the probe messages.
18 . The communication device according to claim 15 , the communication device being configured to:
form the plurality of probe messages so that each probe message comprises data containing a lifetime field specifying the retransmission lifetime of the message; and each probe message response comprises data containing the value of the lifetime field of that particular probe message as received by the addressed communication device.
19 . The communication device according to claim 11 , the communication device being configured to:
form the plurality of probe messages so that each probe message comprises data containing an address field specifying the address of the communication device that the probe message is addressed to, and the address field contains a communication device address that is not present in the communication network.
20 . A method for identifying restriction point devices within a communication network comprising a plurality of communication devices, the communication network being configured such that transport of packets through the network is provided by the communication devices in the network listening for and relaying packets, the method comprising:
sending a plurality of probe messages for transmission through the communication network;
sending a traffic statistic request message to each of the plurality of communication devices;
receiving a traffic statistics message from each of the plurality of communication devices, each traffic statistics message comprising data defining at least one reception property of the reception of at least one of the probe messages at the respective communication device; and
identifying, based on the at least one reception property, at least one restriction point communication device from the plurality of communication devices that is a restriction point in the network.