# How can we view the Mesh Network node topology?

**URL:** <https://community.particle.io/t/how-can-we-view-the-mesh-network-node-topology/45433>\
**Category:** BLE // NFC\
**Created:** [November 21, 2018, 12:15am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/how-can-we-view-the-mesh-network-node-topology/45433 "2018-11-21T00:15:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Zonker](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/zonker/32/18451_2.png) [@Zonker](https://community.particle.io/u/Zonker)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 12:15am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/how-can-we-view-the-mesh-network-node-topology/45433/1 "2018-11-21T00:15:58Z")

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I’m excited, my pre-ordered Argon and Xenon gear should ship this week! Now I need to get my debugging tools in order! I’m coming in a bit late to the game, and I’m hoping some of you pioneers (ScruffR?) are here on the forums and will share some of your clues with us. 🙂

Is it possible, from my sketch, to find out some level of detail of the mesh network, as seen by my node? I presume that my node knows about _all_ of the nodes currently in the mesh, denoting which are Gateways, but how much of that is available to my sketch? (I’m a network builder, and I go back to X.25 running routers with leased lines, and AX.25. I’m looking for ways to know when nodes have dropped off the RF Mesh network, and I expect that there is some latency between when a node joins and/or dies, and when I could detect that from changes in the mesh map. But, as I’m learning, I’m looking for any debugging info I can collect. 🙂

If it’s not possible from the sketch, what tools are _you_ using to look at the bare RF network packets, to look at things like node addresses and their mesh-map broadcasts? I’m comfortable with WireShark, but I haven’t tried SDR (which of them work at 2.4 GHz, or do I need a pre-scaler with a lower-frequency SDR?), and I see references to ZigBee Mesh USB dongles (but I understand that Particle isn’t really ZigBee…), so should a ZigBee USB dongle help? Or is the “right answer” a RAspberry Pi with some USB interface? Or can I use a Xenon, with a USB cable and a software update, to be a packet monitor for my Particle Mesh?

If I can’t get “local” clues from my nodes or an RF network monitor, can I get that map data from the Particle Cloud, maybe with an API call or two?

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and best regards, Zonker
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