.TH PEWIT 8 "15 Sep 2003" "PEWIT version @VERSION@" Nexedi
.SH NAME
pewit \- control network packets by polling
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B pewit
[\fIoptions\fR]...
.LP
.SH DESCRIPTION
PEWIT serves a so-called \fBPolling Method\fR to solve the hidden
station problem in wireless networks.
.LP
Wireless networks, mainly in ourdoor installations, tend to have poor
performance, because stations with stronger signal levels hide stations
with weaker signal levels. If stronger stations keep emitting packets,
packets from weaker stations are often dropped, then these retries to
send packets again and again. So the overall performance could be much
worse than expected.
.LP
PEWIT solves this problem by polling stations from an access point.
The one in the access point is called \fBmaster\fR, and the rest are
called \fBslaves\fR. The master pewit controls the whole network, and
it signals a slave pewit at a time, to tell it to start packet
transmissions. If the slave pewit finishes, it signals the master.
Then, the master chooses another slave pewit.
.LP
Thanks to this scheduling algorithm, no packet collision will occur
in theory. So, PEWIT makes outdoor wireless networks more efficient.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-config\fR=\fIFILE\fR
Specify the configuration file explicitly. The default location is
\fI/etc/pewit.conf\fR.
.TP
\fB\-D\fR, \fB\-\-debug\fR[=\fILEVEL\fR]
Increase or specify the debug level.
.TP
\fB\-F\fR, \fB\-\-foreground\fR
Run on foreground.
.TP
\fB\-p\fR, \fB\-\-pid\fR=\fIFILE\fR
Store the process id in the file \fIFILE\fR.
.TP
\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR
Display the usage and exit.
.TP
\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
Print version information and exit.
.SH FILES
.I /etc/pewit.conf
.SH AUTHOR
Yoshinori OKUJI <yo@nexedi.com>
.SH "SEE ALSO"
\fIpewit.conf(5)\fR,
\fIhttp://pewit.org\fR