RRCpacketSniffer

Android application to capture data packets and resulting RRC state transitions.

RRCpacketSniffer is an android application which can be used for capturing tcp udp and icmp data packets and resulting RRC state transitions, simultaneously.

The application is working implementation of the tool discussed in this research paper "Android phone based appraisal of app behavior on cell networks" (http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2593916)

Description

Quantifying an application’s signaling efficiency requires information about:

The data packets that were exchanged.

Corresponding RRC state transitions.

Unlike the existing applications and tools, this application neither requires any special hardware, nor retrieves RRC state in an offline manner using a simulator. The functionality of the tool is split into two parts, the Packet Sniffer and the RRC State Logger.

Packet Sniffer

The packet sniffer uses C_packetCapture a binary executable of libpcap, built using libpcap source code and Android NDK. The executable is launched in a shell with superuser privileges. The packet sniffer enables us to capture all uplink and downlink packets associated with a network interface, and stores the packet timestamp and header information corresponding to IP, UDP, TCP, and ICMP protocols, in a log.text file.

RRC State Logger

For Retrieving RRC States, we adopt a novel approach to find and record the actual RRC state of the device at any given instant. Android Secret codes are required to switch to RRC service mode. The resulting RRC state transitions with timestamp are stored in a dump.txt file on sdcard.Currently we have secret codes for limited samsung devices, though a wide variety of secret codes are available for different manufacturers.

The detailed description of calculating an application's signalling efficiency from the data collected using our app (RRCpacketSniffer) has been described in this paper "Android phone based appraisal of app behavior on cell networks".

Devices Supported

Currently the application supports all Samsung devices ranging from Galaxy S to Galaxy S5. We are working on getting support for other brand devices as well. All devices would require root permission.

License

Copyright (c), Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi

Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice is mentioned and research paper is cited.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.