[Ns-developers] Tracing Rework

[Timo Bingmann]

Hello guys,

am I correct that these trace sources are supposed to provide a common interface for all net devices? And this common interface is then used to create different types of tcpdump files.

I noticed that you added a phyRxDropTrace to YansWifiPhy. I did the same in my testing code, but obviously I was more interested in the reason why the packet was dropped. The reason is indicated to the callback via an enum parameter. Beyond the drop reason there is a lot of interesting information that should also be passed to the trace callback.

So how does this match up with your work on a common trace interface? Does that mean there are two subsequent trace sources calls:
m_phyRxDropTrace(packet);
m_phyRxDropTraceDetailed(packet, reason, rxPower, snr, ...);
?

I for my part believe that there should be a common set of (optional) relative trace paths / names: MacTxStart, MacRxEnd, PhyRxDrop, PhyRxEnd.
However the parameters must be adaptable to whatever interesting information the device has to export.
These parameters must then be reconciled (i.e. dropped) in the helper module implementing the tcpdump output callback.

Greetings
Timo