3.1 Introduction

The Performance Analyzer is a useful tool to help measure and analyze the RF performance characteristics of the supported Atmel 802.15.4 wireless platforms.

This tool provides the user with the capability to perform Energy Scans across standard 802.15.4 RF channels to create a visual representation of the RF energy surrounding the location of the radio platform, connected to the Performance Analyzer. Once you have selected a relatively quiet RF channel to use in further RF measurements, you will then find other helpful features contained within the Analyzer. The PER (Packet Error Test) is one such example. This test allows one to collect numerical information regarding the quality of the RF link between two paired nodes.

Parameters such as LQI, RSSI, Packet Error Rate, and Through Put can be examined and recorded. This information can also be used to create numerical information regarding Range capabilities between the two paired RF nodes. When it comes time to analyze RF emissions, TX output power, RX sensitivity, or power consumption, the Performance Analyzer provides many functions that allow configuration of the radio registers, controlling the Continuous wave test modes contained within the radio device, and controlling the current operational state of the radio device, all without writing any additional C code, or developing additional test firmware to configure the device for these measurements.