How to Use the WPA Control

Last Updated: 2011-06-23

WPAControlTab.jpg

The Wireless Protocol Advisor (WPA) is a tool that captures protocol messages that are exchanged between the wireless device and the test set. It is often used to interpret wireless protocol messaging, verify functionality, and isolate and resolve protocol problems when developing new wireless products or applications. The Interactive Functional Test Software allows you to control WPA so that you can capture protocol logs at the same time that you are controlling the wireless device. This topic describes how to control WPA via the Interactive Functional Test Software.

WPA should not be opened while the Interactive Functional Test Software is open.

This topic includes information on:

WPA Activities

The following buttons are available within the WPA Control tab of the applicable Interactive Testing activity screens. Each button below is an activity that WPA must perform, and a script can be generated for each button (and any button that has the blue arrow next to it) using the scripting tool to create a stress test step to add to a test plan.

WPA Activities Status Window

The lower right portion of the WPA Control tab displays the a WPA activities status window that displays the results of the above activities. This status window can be sent to the clipboard (right-click and select Copy to Clipboard).

WPA Settings

The following settings are available within the WPA Control tab of the applicable Interactive Testing activity screens.

The first three radio buttons are stop criteria that you can set instead of importing a trigger and/or log filter file. These (a) have no logging limit or timeout (b) allow you to stop logging after a number of messages or (c) stop logging after a certain amount of time. Note that you cannot choose both (b) and (c).

Trigger and Filter files - Triggers and Filters are used to control which events and messages are captured and displayed. You can have any mixture of triggers and filters. The Interactive Functional Test Software allows you to control these settings by importing the appropriate trigger (*.trg) and filter (*.flt) configuration files. To select the appropriate file, simply click Browse... and navigate to the location of the file. These files must be created in WPA. Note that you cannot import a trigger file if you have selected Stop logging after number of messages or Stop logging after amount of time.

WPA log file path - This is the location of where to save the log file. To change the path, click Browse... and navigate to the location of the file.

Test set filters- Test set filters can be created to control which messages are actually sent from the test set to the Wireless Protocol Advisor (WPA). They are essentially a pre-filter to the WPA and its other filters and triggers. Test set filters limit the amount of information sent over the LAN by passing only the messages for selected protocol layers. The filter setup dialog boxes identify which test set the settings apply to in the title of the dialog box. The Interactive Functional Test Software lists any test set filters it acquires. You can select any combination of the filters listed. Click Select All if you want the Interactive Functional Test Software to apply all the filters in the list. Click Refresh to update the list. The Display Stack button will display the protocol stack of the selected format. This is useful for determining what filters you should apply. WPA must be connected to the test set before it can acquire any test set filter settings.

To capture a WPA log:

This procedure details how to capture a WPA log of any of the supported Interactive Testing activities.

  1. Open the WPA program by clicking Launch WPA in the WPA Control tab. The WPA Control tab is available in all of the Interactive Testing activity screens except Battery Profile, 14565B Battery Profile, and Network Impairments.

  2. Next, click Connect Test Set.

  3. Before starting the activity you want to capture a WPA log for, configure the WPA settings. The WPA control status window indicates whether or not the WPA control event was successful.

  4. Configure the activity that you would like to capture a WPA log of. Once it is configured and ready to start, first click Start Logging and then start the activity.

  5. When the activity has completed, click Stop Logging. The WPA control status window will display the number of messages that are in the WPA log file.

  6. To keep the file, click Save Log File. To recapture the WPA log file without saving the current file, repeat steps 1 through 5.

  7. When you are finished capturing WPA log files, click Disconnect Test Set, then click Close WPA.

Details of the existing WPA log files can be viewed in the View WPA Log tab.

 

Related Topics

Additional information can be found in the WPA user's guide that is accessible via WPA.