Provided by: plc-utils-extra_0.0.6+git20250517.7fb8ac5-1_amd64 
NAME
plcrate - Qualcomm Atheros AR7x00 PHY Rate Monitor
SYNOPSIS
plcrate [options] [device] [device] [...]
DESCRIPTION
The Atheros PHY Rate Utility polls one or more devices and prints the average transmit and receive PHY
rates between a device and each neighboring network device. Output is column-oriented and suitable for
loading into a spreadsheet or being read by a simple program.
This program is part of the Qualcomm Atheros Powerline Toolkit. See the plc man page for an overview and
installation instructions.
CHIPSETS
QCA6410, QCA7000, QCA7420
OPTIONS
-c Display coded PHY rates. Coded PHY rates are displayed by default so this option is redundant but
it has been kept for backword compatibility. This option and option -u are mutually exclusive.
-d seconds
Traffic duration in seconds per connection. Directional traffic is systematically sent between
each pair of powerline network devices for this period of time. Consequently, the total time
needed to generate traffic between all network devices will be approximately n! times this value,
so don''t get carried away. The minimum value is 1 second and the maximum value is 60 seconds.
-e Redirects stderr messages to stdout. By convention status and error messages are printed on
stderr while primary program output is printed on stdout. This option prints all output on stdout
in cases where this is desired.
-i interface
Select the host Ethernet interface. All requests are sent via this host interface and only
reponses received via this host interface are recognized. The default interface is eth1 because
most people use eth0 as their principle network connection; however, if environment string "PLC"
is defined then it takes precedence over the default interface. This option then takes precedence
over either default.
-n Reads the average transmit and receive PHY rate for wach device using VS_NW_INFO and prints it on
stdout. Each output line displays the ethernet interface, source address, destination address and
either the transmit or receive PHY rate.
-o milliseconds
Read timeout in milliseconds. Values range from 0 through UINT_MAX. This is the maximum time
allowed for a response. The default is shown in brackets on the program menu.
-q Enter quiet mode. Progress messages are suppressed.
-r Reads device hardware and software revision information using VS_SW_VER and prints it on stdout.
-R Resets the device using VS_RS_DEV.
-s Generate only TX traffic between the local device and each remote device on powerline network.
This option is useful to speed up PLC network testing if the test is run on every node and each
receiving side is checked individually. In other words: this flag is only used in combination with
-t (one-to-many), not when generating traffic between all powerline peers.
-t Generate powerline traffic between the local device and each remote device on each powerline
network connected to the host. It does not generate any traffic between remote powerline device
pairs. This option is especially useful when remote powerline devices are not connected to
Ethernet devices capable of sending traffic back to the host.
-T Generate powerline traffic between all devices on each powerline network connected to the host.
This option is similar to option -t but it takes much longer because traffic is systematically
generated between each pair of powerline devices. Consequently, the time to complete will
increase factorially as the number of network devices increases. Such complete traffic path
coverage is not always needed.
-u Display un-coded PHY rates. Coded PHY rates are displayed by default. This option and option -c
are mutually exclusive.
-v Enter verbose mode. All Etherenet frames sent or received by the program are displayed on stdout.
-x Exit program on first error with a non-zero exit code. This option allows shell scripts to detect
failed or incomplete operations and take the appropriate action.
-?,--help
Print program help summary on stdout. This option takes precedence over other options on the
command line.
-!,--version
Print program version information on stdout. This option takes precedence over other options on
the command line. Use this option when sending screen dumps to Atheros Technical Support so that
they know exactly which version of the Linux Toolkit you are using.
ARGUMENTS
device The MAC address of some powerline device. More than one address may be specified. If more than
one address is specified then operations are performed on each device in turn. The default
address is local. See DEVICES for information about symbolic device addresses.
DEVICES
Powerline devices use Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. A MAC address is a 48-bit value
entered as 12 hexadecimal digits in upper, lower or mixed character case. Octets may be separated with
colons for clarity. For example, "00b052000001", "00:b0:52:00:00:01" and "00b052:000001" are valid and
equivalent.
The following MAC addresses are special and may be entered by name instead of number.
all Same as "broadcast".
broadcast
A synonym for the Ethernet broadcast address, FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. All devices, whether local,
remote or foreign recognize messages sent to this address. A remote device is any device at the
far end of a powerline connection. A foreign device is any device not manufactured by Atheros.
local A synonym for the Qualcomm Atheros vendor specific Local Management Address (LMA),
00:B0:52:00:00:01. All local Atheros devices recognize this address but remote and foreign
devices do not. A remote device is any device at the far end of a powerline connection. A
foreign device is any device not manufactured by Atheros.
REFERENCES
See the Qualcomm Atheros HomePlug AV Firmware Technical Reference Manual for more information.
EXAMPLES
The following example displays the average transmit and receive PHY rates from each of two devices. One
is a local device connected to interface eth2 and the other is a remote device at the far end of the
powerline. In this case, they are the only two devices on the powerline network. Observe the recipricol
rates shown.
# plcrate -ni eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:AA 00:B0:52:00:00:BB
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:AA 00:B0:52:00:00:BB TX 163 mbps
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:AA 00:B0:52:00:00:BB RX 176 mbps
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:BB 00:B0:52:00:00:AA TX 176 mbps
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:BB 00:B0:52:00:00:AA RX 163 mbps
The following example generates powerline traffic between the local device and each remote device because
option -t is present. It then displays the PHY rate read from the local device.
# plcrate -tni eth2
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:AA 00:B0:52:00:00:BB TX 163 mbps
eth2 00:B0:52:00:00:AA 00:B0:52:00:00:BB RX 176 mbps
DISCLAIMER
Atheros HomePlug AV Vendor Specific Management Message Entry structure and content is proprietary to
Qualcomm Atheros, Ocala FL USA. Consequently, public information may not be available. Qualcomm Atheros
reserves the right to modify message structure and content in future firmware releases without any
obligation to notify or compensate users of this program.
SEE ALSO
PLC(1), amprate(1), int6krate(1)
CREDITS
Nathaniel Houghton
Charles Maier
open-plc-utils-0.0.3 November 2013 plcrate(1)