Introduction
============

This package provides utilities and Python modules for managing VESNA-based
wireless sensor networks that are using the ALH protocol.

In a typical setup, VESNA nodes participate in a ZigBee-based wireless mesh
network. On this mesh network each sensor node exposes a HTTP-like interface,
supporting two types of requests: GET for state-less information retrieval
and POST for state-changing actions.

The ZigBee mesh is established by the coordinator. In addition to a ZigBee
interface, the coordinator also typically has an Ethernet adapter. At boot it
establishes a TCP/IP SSL tunnel and exposes an ALH service over it.

Usually, the SSL tunnel terminates in an infrastructure server that performs
the translation between ALH and a proper HTTP REST interface exposed on the
web:

+------+
| node | ALH -  ZigBee mesh
+------+      \
              |                      SSL tunnel
+------+      |      +-------------+            +----------------+
| node | ALH -+- ALH | coordinator | ALH ------ | infrastructure | HTTPS -->
+------+      |      +-------------+            +----------------+
              |
+------+      /
| node | ALH -
+------+

Alternatively, coordinator can also be directly connected to a client over a
serial line. This setup is typically used for development or debugging:

+------+
| node | ALH -  ZigBee mesh
+------+      \
              |                      serial line
+------+      |      +-------------+
| node | ALH -+- ALH | coordinator | ALH --------------------------------->
+------+      |      +-------------+
              |
+------+      /
| node | ALH -
+------+

These tools transparently support both modes of operation. Typically either URL of the
HTTP REST endpoint is given or a character device for the serial line.


Installation
============

To install system-wide, run:

$ python setup.py install

You also need to install Python bindings for VESNA spectrum sensor
application. You can get it at:

https://github.com/sensorlab/vesna-spectrum-sensor

See its own README file for installation instructions.

For communication over the serial line, python-serial package is needed.

$ apt-get install python-serial


Usage
=====

After installation, the following tools are available:

  alh-reprogram -- Perform over-the-air reprogramming of the coordinator or
                   sensor nodes.

  alh-map       -- Enumerate all the nodes participating in the sensor
                   network by crawling the ZigBee mesh.

		   Can be used for visualizing the network using Graphviz
		   or network monitoring (via integration into Munin).

  alh-tx-test   -- Signal generator test.

  alh-endpoint-server
		-- Simple ALH-to-HTTP endpoint server, useful for testing. It
		   can be used instead of the proper infrastructure server.


Run each with "--help" as the only argument to get a list of available
options.

Note: if the API end-point is using basic authentication, you will be
prompted for credentials on the command line.

You can also save credentials into either a file named ".alhrc" in your
home directory or "alhrc" in the current directory. Format of the file is
as in the following example:

Host example.com
User <username>
Password <password>
# more Host, User, Password lines can follow


Several Python modules are installed as well. Refer to demo programs in the
demos/ directory for examples on how to use them and docstring
documentation for details.


Remote testing with rftest.py
=============================

This library provides a DeviceUnderTest class that is compatible with the
RF test utility from vesna-spectrum-sensor repository. It allows for testing of
radio hardware (e.g. SNE-ISMTV) using the production firmware (e.g.
NodeSpectrumSensor application) on a fully assembled node with minimal
additional wiring.

Testing setup looks like this:

+----------+ coax +------+ zigbit +-------------+  SSL  +----------------+
| R&S SMBV |----->| node |<-------| coordinator |<------| infrastructure |
+----------+      +------+  ALH   +-------------+       +----------------+
      ^                                                           ^
      | usbtmc    +--------+  HTTPS                               |
      +-----------| rftest |--------------------------------------+
                  +--------+

Run rftest like this:

$ vesna-rftest -i foo -R vesna.alh.rftest.RemoteDeviceUnderTest -O,-Uhttps://...,-u...,-n1


License
=======

Copyright (C) 2013 SensorLab, Jozef Stefan Institute
http://sensorlab.ijs.si

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Authors:	Tomaz Solc, <tomaz.solc@ijs.si>