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= 802.11 Reference Design: Experiment Framework Setup =

== Quick Start ==
 * Install a suitable Python distribution (may be already be installed on your PC; see below)
 * Download the 802.11 Reference Design Python packages and examples from the repository: [browser:/ReferenceDesigns/w3_802.11/python /ReferenceDesigns/w3_802.11/python]
 * Choose an example script ([source:/ReferenceDesigns/w3_802.11/python/warpnet_example_wlan_throughput.py warpnet_example_wlan_throughput.py] for example)
 * Edit the script header to match your setup (IP address of your PC and serial numbers of your WARP nodes)
 * Open a terminal to the directory containing the example script
 * Run the script with Python; for example {{{python warpnet_example_wlan_throughput.py}}}

== System Requirements ==
 * '''802.11 Reference Design''': warpnet support was added to the reference design in v0.8.

 * '''Python''': the warpnet framework supports both Python 2 (2.7+) and Python 3 (3.3+). No third-party Python packages are required. See the Python recommendations below for more details.

 * '''Connectivity''': the framework requires the host PC and every WARP v3 node be connected to a common Ethernet switch. We recommend you use a dedicated NIC on your PC to avoid superfluous traffic on the experimental network. The WARP v3 nodes must use their '''ETH B''' interfaces for wlan_exp.

 * '''WARP v3 hardware''': warpnet requires at least one WARP v3 node running the 802.11 Reference Design. The framework supports up to 253 nodes.

== Python Versions ==
The warpnet framework supports Python 2 (2.7.4+) and Python 3 (3.3+). The core warpnet and wlan_exp scripts require only the core Python packages.

We have tested the framework and example scripts using the operating systems and Python distributions listed below.

'''Mac OS X'''
 * Python 2.7.4 bundled with Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks
 * Python 2.7.5 in [https://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/wiki/Installation Spyder]
 * Python 2.7.6 in [http://continuum.io/downloads Anaconda]

'''Windows''':
 * Python 2.7.6.2 (64 bit) in [http://winpython.sourceforge.net/ WinPython]
 * Python 3.3.3.2 (64 bit) in [http://winpython.sourceforge.net/ WinPython]

=== Useful Packages ===
 * '''[http://ipython.org/ ipython]''': this interactive Python environment is great for testing experiment scripts and exploring experiment results. Many integrated Python distributions (Anaconda, Spyder, WinPython, etc) integrate the ipython shell. 

 * '''numpy''': Some of the wlan_log examples use [http://www.numpy.org/ numpy 1.7] for processing large arrays of node log entries. numpy is included in many Python distributions. You can check by running this on your command line: {{{python -c "import numpy; print numpy.version.version"}}}. This will print a version number if numpy is installed or an error if it is not. Our examples assume numpy 1.7 or later.

 * '''pandas''': The pandas library provides some very useful tools for dealing with large datasets, especially those where time is a dimension (like log entries).