Portable network analyzer
Tyler B. Warren · Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science · 2011
With networks expanding into all areas of business, both network and security engineers are finding it more difficult to attend directly to issues. In many cases, a physical presence is still necessary on site to troubleshoot and identify issues, but on site, even carrying a bulky laptop is a hindrance. With today's advances in embedded systems, the answer to this problem is presented. A device running an embedded Computer on Module was built with a portable footprint, in both size and power requirements. A device of this type running an operating system like Linux is a powerful tool. In this project, we built such a device from a Gumstix Overo Computer on Module. The device is presented in a small form factor, 3" x 5" x 1¼", with a battery providing portability. Running OpenEmbedded Linux and equipped with a packet analysis tool, Wireshark, the device was shown to have the required memory and processing ability to perform the necessary data collection for network troubleshooting.