Provided by:
gpsd-clients_2.30-1ubuntu3_i386 
NAME
gpsprof - profile a GPS and gpsd, plotting latency information
SYNOPSIS
gpsprof [-f plot_type] [-m threshold] [-n packetcount] [-s speed]
[-t title] [-h]
DESCRIPTION
gpsprof measures the various latencies between a GPS and its client. It
emits to standard output a GNUPLOT program that draws an illustrative
graph. It can also be told to emit the raw profile data. The
information it provides can be useful for establishing an upper bound
on latency, and thus on position accuracy of a GPS in motion.
gpsprof uses instrumentation built into gpsd.
To display the graph, use gnuplot(1). Thus, for example, to display the
default spatial scatter plot, do this:
gpsprof | gnuplot -persist
OPTIONS
The -f option sets the plot type. The X axis is samples (sentences with
timestamps). The Y axis is normally latency in seconds. Currently the
following plot types are defined:
space Generate a scattergram of fixes and plot a probable-error
circle. This data is only meaningful if the GPS is held
stationary while gpsprof is running. This is the default.
uninstrumented
Plot total latency without instrumentation. Useful mainly as a
check that the instrumentation is not producing significant
distortion. It only plots times for sentences that contain
fixes; staircase-like artifacts in the plot are created when
elapsed time from sentences without fixes is lumped in.
raw Plot raw data.
split Each sentence has its RS232 latency time colored differently.
cycle Report on the set of sentences or packets emitted by the GPS,
their send intervals, and the basic cycle time. (This report is
plain text rather than a gnuplot script.)
The instrumented time plots conveys the following information:
RS232 time
Minimum time required to send the sentence from the GPS to gpsd.
This is computed, not measured, and may be an underestimate.
Other line latency
The transmission latency between the GPS and gpsd not accounted
for by RS232 time. Total line latency (the sum of this bar and
RS232 time) is measured; it begins with the GPS sentence’s
timestamp and ends with a timestamp that gpsd generates at
sentence-reading time, before it is decoded.
Decode time
Elapsed time between sentence reception and the moment that gpsd
ships the resulting update to the profiling client.
TCP/IP latency
Elapsed time between the moment that gpsd ships the update to
the profiling client and the moment it is decoded and
timestamped.
Because of RS232 buffering effects, the profiler sometimes generates
reports of ridiculously high latencies right at the beginning of a
session. The -m option lets you set a latency threshold, in multiples
of the cycle time, above which reports are discarded.
The -n option sets the number of packets to sample. The default is 100.
The -s option sets the baud rate. Note, this will only work if the
chipset accepts a speed-change command (SiRF-II supports this feature).
The -t option sets a text string to be included in the plot title.
The -h option makes gpsprof print a usage message and exit.
BUGS AND LIMITAIONS
Probably overestimates TCP/IP latency somewhat, as that includes the
Python interpreter’s decode time. A C client would be faster.
SEE ALSO
gpsd(8), xgps(1), libgps(3), libgpsd(3), gnuplot(1).
AUTHOR
Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. There is a project page for gpsd
here: http://gpsd.berlios.de/.
GPSPROF(1)