Monday, April 30, 2012

throughput plots

The Throughput Widget in CORE has shown the real-time kbps bandwidth usage on each link, and now we can plot this data using a new Plot Tool.
About the new Plot Tool:
  • Available in the SVN snapshot of CORE
  • Click on the new blue plot icon in the Execution Toolbar
  • Click on any link to open a new plot for that link. (Opening a new plot will turn on the Throughput Widget if it is off.)
  • Plots are updated every second (along with the throughput labels.)
  • Plots can be dragged around the canvas with the mouse.
  • Right-click on a plot to close it.

To-do list -- help wanted!

Are you interested in improving the plot tool? Here are some items on the To-do list:
  • Plot re-sizing: drag the edge/corner of a plot to resize it; use Tk canvas scale command
  • Color picker: click an icon to choose one of several preset color schemes for the plot (choices could appear after floating the mouse in the upper-right corner of the plot)
  • link/interface label on a plot (with many plots on screen, it may be useful to know which plot belongs to which nodes)
  • lock all scales together (plots will auto-scale up to display higher throughputs; this may cause the scales of several plots to be out of sync and difficult to compare)
  • pause plot (e.g. float mouse in upper-right corner and pause/color selection buttons appear)
  • scroll back plot history
  • save/log plot data to a file (throughput data is calculated from bytes reported in /proc/net/dev)
  • save location and plot settings with the imn file for auto-loading
  • plot something else: kbps in/out? plot different protocols, TCP/UDP, unicast/multicast?