NMS Spectrum Analyzer Application

NMS Spectrum Analyzer Application Spectrum View Window... 3 Context Sensitive Menus for Spectrum View Window... 3 Add Horizontal Line... 4 Add Vertical Line... 4 Show Lines... 4 Hide Lines... 4 Delete All Lines... 4 New Trace... 4 Ranges... 4 Numeric Stepper... 4 Graph Color... 4 Set Frequency... 5 Center... 5 Sample... 5 Set Signal Range... 5 Min... 5 Max... 5 Window Function... 5 Offset... 6 Baseband Bandwidth... 6 AGC... 6 Sweep Rate... 6 FFT... 6 Data Rate... 6 Save As Default... 6 View Default... 6 Start Updates... 6 Data Averaging... 6 Controls... 7 Recorder... 7 Open... 8 Save... 8 Delete... 9 Info... 9 File: Textbox... 10 Recording Controls... 10 Record Button... 10 Play Button... 10 Pause Button... 11 Stop Button... 11 Loop Checkbox... 11 Line Color Color Picker... 11 Timer Window... 11 Scrollbar... 11 Current Carriers...Error! Bookmark not defined. User Lines... 12 Adding Lines... 12 Delete All Lines... 13-1 -

User Line Color... 13 Context Sensitive Menus for Lines... 13 Lock Line... 13 Unlock Line... 14 Show Lines... 14 Hide Lines... 14 Delete Line... 14 Delete All Lines... 14 Traces... 15 New Trace... 15 Context-Sensitive Menu for Traces... 15 Info... 15 Adding a Trace to the Spectrum View Window... 16 Changing Trace Visibility... 16 Changing Trace Name... 16 Moving a Trace... 17 Deleting a Trace... 17 Saving... 17 Flash Settings... 18-2 -

NMS Spectrum Analyzer Application The Spectrum Analyzer application enables the user to remotely view spectrum data of a particular device through the internet and a web browser. Figure 1 The application consists of two sections. The upper section contains the spectrum view window which displays the current spectrum information. The bottom section contains all of the controls for the application within three tabbed windows: Ranges, Controls and Traces. Spectrum View Window The spectrum view window contains the spectrum graph, the signal level and frequency information for the spectrum analyzer. User lines, (if used), will also be displayed within this window). Context Sensitive Menus for Spectrum View Window - 3 -

Context-sensitive menus allow the user to accomplish specific tasks related to the object the user is interacting with. To view this menu, move the mouse within the spectrum view window and right-click the mouse. Several options will be available to the user. Ranges Add Horizontal Line Creates a horizontal line within the spectrum view window. Refer to Adding Lines in this manual for more information. Add Vertical Line Creates a vertical line within the spectrum view window. Refer to Adding Lines in this manual for more information. Show Lines Shows all of the user created lines within the spectrum view window. This is the default setting. Hide Lines Hides all of the user created lines within the spectrum view window. The lines are still in their current positions and can be turned back on by selecting the Sow Lines option in this menu. Delete All Lines Permanently deletes all of the user created lines. If you would like to clear the lines temporarily to view spectrum information, you may want to use the Hide Lines option instead of this one. New Trace Creates a new trace icon. For more information on Traces, refer to the Traces section of this manual. The Ranges section is the default view when you first open the application. It contains all of the controls to view, modify and save the current spectrum range view. Numeric Stepper A control called a Numeric Stepper is used frequently throughout this application. It allows the user to set a number in several different ways. A user can enter a number directly by clicking within the numeric stepper window by highlighting the current number, entering the desired number and pressing the Enter key on the keyboard. Alternatively, the user can click the up or down arrows to go up or down by a single predetermined step size. By pressing and holding the up or down arrows, the numeric stepper quickly increases or decreases by the predetermined step size. Releasing the mouse button will stop the numeric stepper from changing. Graph Color The Graph color selector allows the user to change the current color of the graph. To do this, click on the color picker square at the top left corner of the Range section. A color picker window will appear (Figure 2). Click on one of the available colors to set the graph to that color. Once the user releases the mouse, the color picker window will disappear and the graph and color picker square will change to the selected color. - 4 -

Figure 2 Set Frequency The Set Frequency controls allow the user to select and view any area of the spectrum from 900MHz 2150MHz with a sample frequency from 10 KHz to 2 MHz. Center Setting the Center Frequency tunes the spectrum analyzer to the desired center frequency. The Center Frequency must be a whole number, and the user sets the Center Frequency with the Numeric Stepper. For information on how to use this control, see the Numeric Stepper section of this manual. Valid ranges are from 910 to 2140 MHz with a step size of 1 MHz. Sample Sets the sample range of the spectrum view. The minimum range is 10KHz and the maximum range is 20MHz. The Sample Range uses the Numeric Stepper and the step size for this control is.001 KHz. For information on how to use this control, see the Numeric Stepper section of this manual. Set Signal Range Sets the signal level (vertical range) of the spectrum window with the Numeric Stepper. For information on how to use this control, see the Numeric Stepper section of this manual. The Center Frequency must be a whole number. Min Sets the minimum value of the signal range. This control uses the Numeric Stepper. For information on how to use this control, see the Numeric Stepper section of this manual. The step size for this control is.01 db and valid values range from 0 to -150 db. Max Sets the maximum value of the signal range. This control uses the Numeric Stepper. For information on how to use this control, see the Numeric Stepper section of this manual. The step size for this control is.01 db and valid values range from 0 to -150 db. The user also has the ability to change the center frequency, range and signal range values by selecting an area within the graph to display. To use the graph selection option, click and drag within an area of the spectrum view. A highlight rectangle will appear showing the selection. When you have selected the area you wish to see, release the mouse button. The spectrum view will reconfigure to display the range that was selected. Window Function Sets the Window function type that the spectrum view will display. There are five window types available: Rectangle, Blackman, Hamming, Hanning, Bartlett and Welch. Hamming is the default. To select a different window function, click anywhere within the Window Function control and select another window function from the drop down menu. You might have to scroll up or down to find the window function you wish to select. - 5 -

Offset Sets the satellite offset value based on the location of the user.. This control uses the Numeric Stepper. For information on how to use this control, see the Numeric Stepper section of this manual. The range is from 0 to 65535 with a step size of 1. Baseband Bandwidth Sets the baseband bandwidth value for the spectrum view. This control uses the Numeric Stepper. For information on how to use this control, see the Numeric Stepper section of this manual. Valid ranges are from 4 to 30 with a step size of 2. AGC Sets the automatic gain control for the spectrum view. This control uses the Numeric Stepper. For information on how to use this control, see the Numeric Stepper section of this manual. Valid ranges are from 0.014 to 3.3 volts with a step size of 0.014 volts. Sweep Rate Sets the sweep rate of the spectrum view. This control uses the Numeric Stepper. For information on how to use this control, see the Numeric Stepper section of this manual. Valid ranges are from 1 to 30 Hz with a step size of 1 Hz. The higher the sweep rate number, the more the spectrum view will refresh every second FFT The Fast Fourier Transform value for the spectrum view. The higher the number, the more data points available per sweep. This control uses the Numeric Stepper. For information on how to use this control, see the Numeric Stepper section of this manual. Valid ranges are from 16 to 4096 with a step size that is a multiple of 16. Data Rate The Sweep Rate and FFT are combined together to create the current Data Rate of the application. Although the application will try to display what the user has selected, the higher the FFT, the lower the Sweep Rate should be, as there is more data to try to display at one time. This becomes extremely important when there is limited internet bandwidth to send the spectrum view information. The Data Rate output value takes the current Sweep Rate and FFT and estimates the data rate, (in Kb/sec), that is needed to correctly display the information in real time. If you exceed the bandwidth available, a significant slow-down of the application will occur. Save As Default This button allows the user to save the current values of the Range section as the default value. Every time the application starts, it will start with that view. Also, if the user presses the View Default button, these values will be loaded. View Default Loads the user created default values for the Range section that were set with the Save As Default button. Start Updates Manually starts the spectrum view updates with the current values in the Range section. This is needed after playing recordings. Data Averaging Toggle switch that turns data averaging on or off. If on, the spectrum data is analyzed and averaged ten times before being sent to the spectrum view. This creates a smoother spectrum view that can differentiate noise from actual signal activity. - 6 -

Controls Figure 3 The Controls tab is organized into three sections: Recorder, and User Line Control. Recorder The Recorder section allows the user to record, play, save, open and delete recordings of the spectrum view. With VCR-type controls, the user has a familiar interface to control the recorded information. The following describes the elements of the Recorder section. NOTE: recordings will always display according to the spectrum view in which they were recorded and do not adjust based on the current spectrum view range. When - 7 -

a recording starts to play, it adjusts the spectrum window to its settings. You may need to test this a few times to understand how recordings adjust the spectrum view window. Open Opens the Open File dialog box and shows a list of recordings that have already been saved, (see Figure 4). To select one, click on a name in the list and then press the OK button. The file will load into the player. NOTE: if it is a large recording, it may take a while to load. To cancel the Open command, press the Cancel button in the Open File dialog box and the Open File dialog box will close without opening a file. Figure 4 Save Opens the Save File dialog box and shows a list of recordings that have already been saved, (see Figure 5). To save a new file, enter a name for the file in the File Name input box and press the OK button. NOTE: if it is a large recording, it may take a while to load. To cancel the Save command, press the Cancel button in the Save File dialog box and the Save File dialog box will close without saving. Figure 5 If you have opened a file that has already been saved, and then try to save it again, a message box will appear explaining that the current file has already been saved, (See Figure 6). To close the message window, press the OK button. - 8 -

Figure 6 If you press the Save button but have not recorded anything and do not have a current file loaded to play, a message will appear explaining that there is nothing to save, (see Figure 7). To close the message window, press the OK button. Figure 7 Delete Deletes the recording that is in memory. A Confirm Delete dialog box will appear to ensure that the user wants to delete the current file, (see Figure 8). To cancel the delete command, press the cancel button in the Confirm Delete dialog box and the Confirm Delete dialog box will close without deleting the current file. Figure 8 If the Delete button is pressed and there is no recording in memory, a message will appear explaining that there is no file to delete, (see Figure 9). To close the message window, press the OK button. Figure 9 Info Displays the current recording s spectrum view settings when the file was recorded, (see Figure 10). The information includes: the name of the recording, the center and sample frequencies, minimum and maximum displayed signal level, FFT and if data averaging was on or off. Pressing the Close button within the Info Window will close it. - 9 -

Figure 10 If the Info button is pressed when there is no recording in memory, a message window will display notifying the user that there is no recording in which to show information, (see Figure 11). To close the message window, press the OK button. Figure 11 File: Textbox Displays the name of the current recording that is loaded into memory. If there is no recording loaded, the textbox will be blank. If there is a recording that has been recorded but not saved, the File: textbox will display New Recording. This textbox is read-only. (See Figure 3). Recording Controls The recording controls consist of 4 buttons: Record, Play, Pause and Stop, a Loop checkbox, a color picker, recording time window and recording scrollbar, (see Figure 3). Record Button Starts recording the information in the spectrum view window. If there is a current recording in memory that has not been saved, pressing the Record button will overwrite the previous recording. NOTE: the timer window will display how long the recording is. This number is based on the current Sweep Rate which can be set in the Ranges section. The faster the Sweep Rate, the faster the recording will be. If there is no data coming into the spectrum view, it may be necessary to go to the Ranges section and press the Start Updates button, (see Figure 1 in the Ranges section of this manual for more information on how to use these controls). Play Button Plays the current recording that is in memory. If there is no recording to play, a message window will appear notifying the user that there is no file in memory to play, (see Figure 12). Press the OK button to close the Message window. If there is current data coming into the spectrum view, it will be stopped when the recording starts to play. - 10 -

Figure 12 Pause Button Pauses the current recording and keeps the last image in the spectrum view window. Stop Button Stops the playback of the current recording and removes the image from the spectrum view window. Loop Checkbox Selecting the Loop checkbox will continuously play the current recording. When the recording is at the end of the file, it will loop back to the beginning and play again. This will continue until the user presses the Pause or Stop button or the Loop Checkbox is deselected. Line Color Color Picker This sets the graph color of the recording as it is playing in the spectrum view window. This is helpful to distinguish between live data and recorded data. To do this, click on the line color picker square. A color picker window will appear (Figure 2). Click on one of the available colors to set the recording to that color. Once the user releases the mouse, the color picker window will disappear and the recording and color picker square will change to the selected color. NOTE: if the recording is paused, the color change will not occur until the recording is playing. Timer Window Displays the time of the recording that is in memory, (see Figure 13). Scrollbar The scrollbar allows the user to visually see how much of the current recording has played by looking at the scroll button within the scroll bar. Also, the user can scroll through the current recording by pressing and dragging the scroll bar within the scroll window, (see Figure 13). This allows for faster or slower playback of the current recording. The user can also skip within the recording by clicking anywhere within the scrollbar. The recording will jump to that section. For both the scroll button and scrollbar, if the recording is playing when the mouse is pressed, the recording will continue to play from its new position when the mouse is released. If the recording is paused or stopped when the mouse is pressed, it will continue to be paused or stopped when the mouse is released. When the user presses the play button, the recording will resume from its new position. Figure 13-11 -

User Lines The User Lines section allows the user to add, remove and change colors of user-added lines within the spectrum view window, (see Figure 3). Adding lines within the spectrum view window can be beneficial to measure the bandwidth of a carrier or its signal strength. Another benefit of user lines is that they stay in the same relative position. So if you move the center frequency by 1 MHz, a vertical user line will move by 1 MHz as well. Adding Lines To add a user line, press either the Vertical button to add a vertical line, (which measures the Frequency and bandwidth), or press the Horizontal button to add a horizontal line, (which measures the signal level). Lines will always be created in the top left section of the spectrum view window, (see Figure 14). Figure 14 Once a line has been created, you can move it by moving the mouse over the line. When the mouse pointer changes to 2 arrows, (see Figure 15), press and move the mouse to move the line to the desired location and release the mouse. Notice how the line text number has changed to reflect the line s current location. Figure 15-12 -

You can also reposition the line textbox by moving the mouse over the line textbox. When the mouse pointer changes to a finger pointer, press and move the mouse to move the line to the desired location and release the mouse, (see Figure 16). Figure 16 Delete All Lines Pressing the Delete All Lines button will delete every line in the spectrum view window. User Line Color The User Line Color color picker allows the user to change the colors of all of the user lines. To do this, click on the User Line Color color picker square. A color picker window will appear (Figure 2). Click on one of the available colors to set the user lines to that color. Once the user releases the mouse, the color picker window will disappear and the user lines and color picker square will change to the selected color. Context Sensitive Menus for Lines Adding and removing lines can also be accomplished via a context sensitive menu within the spectrum view window. To view the menu, move the mouse within the spectrum view window and right-click the mouse. A menu will appear that allows you to add a horizontal or vertical line or delete all lines, (see Figure 14). Select the appropriate menu item to accomplish the task. Refer to Context Sensitive Menus for Spectrum View Window in this manual for more information. Different context-sensitive menu options will appear if you right-click on the mouse when you are over a user line. This menu allows you to delete the current line or all of the lines. Lock Line From the context-sensitive menu, you can lock a line. To do this, move the mouse over the line you would like to lock, right-click and select the Lock Line option in the contextsensitive menu. This will lock the line in place so it cannot be accidentally moved while trying to move another line or selecting a new range to display within the spectrum view window. A lock icon will appear on the locked line, (see Figure 17). - 13 -

Figure 17 Unlock Line Unlocks the currently locked line. To do this, move the mouse over the line you would like to unlock, right-click and select the Unlock Line option in the context-sensitive menu. The lock icon will disappear from that line and you will be able to move it around the spectrum view window. Show Lines Shows all of the user created lines within the spectrum view window. This is the default setting. Hide Lines Hides all of the user created lines within the spectrum view window. The lines are still in their current positions and can be turned back on by selecting the Sow Lines option in this menu. Delete Line This allows you to delete the currently selected Line. Delete All Lines Deletes all of the lines in the spectrum view window. - 14 -

Traces Traces allow the user to create snapshots of the spectrum view window. A total of seven traces can be saved at any given time. After a trace is saved, it can be viewed along with the current spectrum data in the spectrum view window. Traces can be color-coded to distinguish between current live spectrum data as well as other trace snapshots. Figure 18 New Trace To create a new trace, press the New Trace button. A new trace thumbnail will appear in the Trace library as well as a color icon indicating that trace s color and a preview of the trace. Once a Trace has been created, it is automatically saved and can be used on subsequent sessions of the application. Context-Sensitive Menu for Traces There is an alternative to pressing the New Trace button to create a trace snapshot. It can also be accomplished via a context sensitive menu within the spectrum view window. To view the menu, move the mouse within the spectrum view window and right-click the mouse. A menu will appear that allows you to create a New Trace. The benefit to this is that you can create a trace wherever you are in the application. You do not have to be in the Trace section. Info To display information about the currently selected trace, press the Info button. The currently selected trace is always outlined in white, (see Figure18. Trace7 is currently selected). The Info window displays information - 15 -

about the spectrum view window when the trace was created. The information includes: the name of the recording, the center and sample frequencies, minimum and maximum displayed signal level, FFT and if data averaging was on or off. Pressing the Close button within the Info Window will close it, (Figure 19). Figure 19 If you press the Info button and no trace has been selected, a message window will appearnotifying the user that no trace has been selected, (see Figure 20). Press the OK button to close the Message window. Figure 20 Adding a Trace to the Spectrum View Window To add a trace to the spectrum view window, click on a trace icon in the Trace library. You can add as many traces in the spectrum window as you would like. To remove a trace from the spectrum window, press the Remove From Graph button. Once a trace is in the spectrum window, you can manipulate it in several ways. Changing the Trace Color When a trace is selected and in the spectrum window, you can alter its color with the Trace Line Color color picker. To do this, click on the Trace Line Color picker square. A color picker window will appear (Figure 2). Click on one of the available colors to set the current trace to that color. Once the user releases the mouse, the color picker window will disappear and the trace, trace color swatch and color picker square will change to the selected color. When multiple traces are on-screen at one time, having separate color for each makes it much easier to distinguish between them, (see Figure 17). Changing Trace Visibility You can also change the visibility or opacity of the current trace by using the Visibility numeric stepper. To do this, select a trace. Once it is on screen, you can set the visibility from 0 to 100. Changing Trace Name When you first create a trace, it defaults to a name of Trace followed by a number. You can change the name of the trace to something more descriptive. To do this, press the mouse within any trace name, select all of the text, (Ctrl+a) and replace the text. The trace does not need to be in the spectrum view, nor does it have to be the currently selected trace to do this. When the application closes, any of the above changes will automatically get saved with the trace information. - 16 -

Moving a Trace Once a trace is in the spectrum view window, it can be moved 1 pixel by pressing the arrow keys on your keyboard, (up, down, left, and right). To move 10 pixels at a time, hold the Shift key down while pressing the arrow keys. This allows you to position a trace so it can align with live data in the spectrum view window. NOTE: Traces will be drawn (and redrawn) according to the settings of the spectrum view window, but they always will start at the left edge of the window. You may need to test changing the spectrum view settings a few times to understand how traces adjust themselves. Deleting a Trace There are two ways to delete a trace. If a trace is selected and in the spectrum view window, pressing the Delete Trace button will permanently delete the trace. You can also right-click on a Trace in the Trace library to show the Trace context-sensitive menu. The first option is to delete the trace. This is helpful if you want to delete a trace that is in the library but not in the spectrum view window. From the Trace context-sensitive menu, you can also open the trace information window for that trace. When deleting a trace, a Confirm Delete dialog box will appear to confirm the delete, (Figure 21). If you want to proceed with the delete, press the OK button. To cancel this operation, click the Cancel button. The Confirm Delete window will disappear and no trace will be deleted. Figure 21 If you press the Delete Trace button when no trace has been selected, a message window will appear indicating that no trace has been selected to delete, (Figure 22). Figure 22 Saving Since this is a web application, there is only one location that the application can save data and it will do so automatically. However, when the application launches for the first time, it needs permission from the user to save data to the hard drive. A dialog box, (se Figure 23) will appear only once. Please press the Allow button to allow the application to save information to the hard drive. This application will only save Trace information and recordings to the hard drive. Figure 23-17 -

Flash Settings On any of the context-sensitive menus, (accessible by right-clicking anywhere within the application), there will always be a Settings option. Clicking on this menu item will open the Flash Player Settings window and the Local Storage tab will be displayed,(see Figure 24). When the application runs for the first time, a request is made to allow data to be stored on the user s hard drive, (see the Saving section above). If the request was allowed by the user, an unlimited amount of storage space is made available to save data. The Flash Player Settings Local Storage tab allows you to adjust how much space can be made available to store data from this application as well as the current amount of data stored locally. WARNING: If the user changes this setting in any way, any previously stored data may be lost. It is recommended that this window be closed without changing any of the settings. Figure 24-18 -