From KAREN wiki

Multicast Beacon

Multicast Beacon's are servers running active measurement software to track site to site multicast connectivity. A Central Beacon Server generates a web page table displaying the reported packet loss between Beacon Servers (Clients).

Each Beacon sends reported loss between two beacons, via TCP unicast, back to the Central Server. This allows for the reporting of Beacons that might not otherwise be able to see each other via UDP multicast.

• Central_loss of 0 - 10 = Green, 10 - 30 = Yellow, 30 - 100 = Red, No data ("NA") = Gray
• R# and S# are the same Beacon. Any given cell in this table is read as "How well does Beacon R# see Beacon S#?"
• The dark green background in the R column shows which Beacon is generating the table you are seeing here (The Central Beacon Server)

REANNZ has a primary server configured for participating in multicast beacon activities (beacon.karen.ac.nz). This server runs both a central beacon server (http://beacon.karen.ac.nz) and beacon clients that connect to central beacon servers in the US and Australia, in addition to the KAREN beacon.

• KAREN - New Zealand
• Internet2 - North America
• AARNet - Australia

Multicast Beacon Setup

The multicast beacon requires perl support and is primarily aimed at being hosted on an open source platform. The following instructions assume a linux platform with perl support is being used.

One of the most simple installation methods is to refer to the instructions for installing a beacon on Ubuntu at the University of Queensland website http://www.vislab.uq.edu.au/research/accessgrid/software/debian/beacon.html

Alternatively you can download the source file (instructions below).

Download the beacon

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/multicastbeacon/beacon-1.3.tar.gz
tar -xvzf beacon-1.3.tar.gz
cd beacon-1.3
./configure
make
make install

Configure the beacon

Before running the beacon you will need to make some configuration changes to the configuration file.

cd /etc/beacon
edit beacon.conf with the following details
GROUP                   = 233.176.75.32
PORT                    = 10002
CONTACTNAME             = Your name
CONTACTINFO             = Your email address
CONTACTLOCATION         = Your location
CENTRALSERVERNAME       = beacon.karen.ac.nz

Run the beacon

You should then be able to start the beacon by typing beacon

Alternatively you may wish to use the command line to start the beacon

/usr/bin/beacon -c beacon.karen.ac.nz -a -g 233.176.75.32 -p 10002 -t 127

Talk to the KAREN team

The KAREN operations team are always happy to help with multicast beacon set up and configuration. The more beacons we have in operation the more value it adds to the community.