TopoBot - AREDN Mesh Network Topology Bot

TopoBot is a command-line tool to generate topology graphs of AREDN Mesh Networks.

From VE3IRR's "bbhn-tools":

Each mesh node appears in an oval. Arrows between nodes indicate the link cost (i.e. expected number of transmissions required per packet). Solid lines between nodes indicate Ethernet links. Nodes beginning with the same call sign are grouped together.

Additionally, TopBot can be run as a Slack bot and will respond to queries in a Slack group.

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Usage

There are two modes in which you can use TopBot:

: 1. Command Line 2. Slack Bot

Command Line Usage

Generate a PNG of the Mesh Network Topology from the command line:

$ topobot -p
/var/folders/nl/7nqyxlfn05dgqlmvfyc13jc00000gn/T/tmp8txp7udf.png
$ open -a preview  /var/folders/nl/7nqyxlfn05dgqlmvfyc13jc00000gn/T/tmp8txp7udf.png

Generate a GraphViz DOT of the Mesh Network Topology from the command line:

$ topobot -p
/var/folders/nl/7nqyxlfn05dgqlmvfyc13jc00000gn/T/tmp8txp7udf.dot

Slack Bot Usage

To run TopoBot as a Slack bot:

$ export SLACKBOT_API_TOKEN='xoxb-XXXX-XXXX'
$ topobot -s

Once TopoBot is running as a Slack bot, you can message the bot with the phrase current, and the bot will reply with a PNG of the current AREDN Mesh Network Topology.

Environment

TopoBot uses between 0 and 2 environment variables:

• TOPO_HOST: (optional) AREDN Mesh Network host running OLSR from which to query topology data. By default uses localnode.local.mesh.
• SLACKBOT_API_TOKEN: (optional) Slack Bot API Token.

Installation

On most Debian or Ubuntu-based Linux systems you'll need the graphviz and imagemagick packages installed:

$ sudo apt-get install graphviz imagemagick -y

Then install TopoBot from PyPI:

$ pip install topobot

Source

Github: https://github.com/ampledata/topobot

Authors

• Greg Albrecht W2GMD (@ampledata): TopoBot Slack Bot & Command Line Client.
• Clayton Smith VE3IRR (@argilo): [topology.py]{.title-ref}, the basis for [functions.py]{.title-ref}.

Copyright

• TopoBot Slack Bot & Command Line Client: Copyright 2020 Greg Albrecht
• bbhn-utils: Copyright 2014-2018 Clayton Smith

License

• TopoBot Slack Bot & Command Line Client: Apache License, Version 2.0
• bbhn-utils: GNU General Public License 3