Embedded Network Monitor

A real-time network monitoring application for embedded Linux devices. Built in C99 with LVGL 8.3 for a responsive, touch-driven dark-themed UI. Originally developed for the Luckfox Pico 86 Smart Panel and designed to run on a broad range of embedded platforms.

Features

• Status Dashboard -- At-a-glance network health: router reachability, DNS functionality, WAN link quality (next-hop detection, jitter, packet loss), WiFi status, and infrastructure summary
• Interface Dashboard -- Live interface cards with sparkline charts, RX/TX rates, and connectivity indicators (USB interfaces filtered from view)
• Interface Detail -- Per-interface drill-down with traffic stats, peak rates, daily totals, error/drop counts, and WiFi info (SSID, signal, bitrate)
• Traffic Charts -- 24-hour bandwidth history at 1-minute resolution with interface selector
• Alert System -- Threshold-based alerts with hysteresis for interface down, high bandwidth, packet errors/drops, gateway unreachable, DNS failure, and high latency
• Connection Tracking -- Live TCP/UDP connection table parsed from /proc/net/tcp and /proc/net/udp
• WiFi Management -- Enable/disable WiFi, scan for networks, connect with WPA/WPA2 authentication, auto-connect on boot
• Settings -- Network configuration, WiFi settings, alert thresholds, infrastructure device management

Screenshots

The UI runs on embedded touchscreens with a dark theme optimized for at-a-glance monitoring.

Supported Hardware

Platform	Status
Luckfox Pico 86 Smart Panel (RV1106, 720x720)	Tested
Other embedded Linux with framebuffer + touch	Planned

Architecture

+------------------------------------------+
|  UI Layer (LVGL 8.3)                     |
|  Status, Interfaces, Detail, Traffic,    |
|  Alerts, Connections, Settings           |
+------------------------------------------+
|  Core Layer                              |
|  Config, Alerts Engine, Ring Buffers,    |
|  Data Persistence, Logging, Formatters   |
+------------------------------------------+
|  Network Layer                           |
|  /proc parsers, ICMP Ping, DNS Probe,   |
|  ARP, WiFi, WAN Discovery, Connection   |
|  Tracking, WiFi Management              |
+------------------------------------------+
|  HAL Layer                               |
|  Framebuffer (/dev/fb0)                  |
|  Evdev Touch (/dev/input/event0)         |
+------------------------------------------+

Key design decisions:

• Single-threaded cooperative event loop using LVGL timers
• All static allocation -- zero calls to malloc, no heap fragmentation
• ~700 KB stripped binary, ~3 MB RSS at runtime
• Data collected from /proc and ioctl at 1s/5s/30s intervals
• WAN link quality measured via lightweight traceroute and multi-ping

Building

Prerequisites

A Linux host (tested on Raspberry Pi / aarch64) with:

sudo apt-get install -y cmake gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf g++-arm-linux-gnueabihf sshpass

Clone

git clone --recursive https://github.com/soren42/Embedded_Network_Monitor.git
cd Embedded_Network_Monitor

If you cloned without --recursive, initialize submodules:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Build

mkdir -p build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../cmake/arm-rockchip.cmake
make -j$(nproc)

The resulting embedded_netmon binary is a statically-linked ARM ELF.

Deployment

Automated

./deploy/deploy.sh [target_ip] [password]
# Defaults: 10.3.38.19 / luckfox

Manual

scp build/embedded_netmon root@10.3.38.19:/usr/bin/embedded_netmon
scp config/netmon.conf root@10.3.38.19:/etc/netmon.conf
ssh root@10.3.38.19 'chmod +x /usr/bin/embedded_netmon'

Configuration

Edit /etc/netmon.conf on the target (or config/netmon.conf before deploying):

# Gateway to ping for connectivity check
ping_target = 10.0.0.1

# DNS server and test hostname
dns_target = 8.8.8.8
dns_test_hostname = google.com

# WiFi configuration
wifi_enabled = 1
wifi_ssid = YOUR_SSID
wifi_password = YOUR_PASSCODE

# Alert thresholds
alert_bw_warn_pct = 80
alert_bw_crit_pct = 95
alert_ping_warn_ms = 100
alert_ping_crit_ms = 500
alert_err_threshold = 10

Project Structure

Embedded_Network_Monitor/
├── cmake/                  # Cross-compilation toolchain
├── config/                 # Default configuration file
├── deploy/                 # Deployment and init scripts
├── lib/
│   ├── lvgl/               # LVGL 8.3 (submodule)
│   └── lv_drivers/         # lv_drivers 8.1 (submodule)
├── src/
│   ├── main.c              # Entry point and main loop
│   ├── conf/               # Compile-time configuration
│   ├── core/               # Config, alerts, ring buffers, logging, utils
│   ├── hal/                # Framebuffer and touchscreen drivers
│   ├── net/                # Network data collectors, WiFi mgmt, WAN discovery
│   └── ui/                 # All UI screens and theming
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── lv_conf.h               # LVGL configuration
└── lv_drv_conf.h           # Driver configuration

Timer Architecture

Timer	Interval	Purpose
Fast	1s	Traffic stats from /proc/net/dev, rate computation, sparklines
Medium	5s	ICMP ping, DNS probe, connection tracking, alert evaluation
Slow	30s	Interface enumeration, ARP table, WiFi stats, WAN discovery
UI	500ms	Refresh visible screen widgets

License

MIT

Acknowledgments

• LVGL -- Light and Versatile Graphics Library
• Luckfox -- Luckfox Pico development platform