Can I read a PCAPNG file with the 'vita49Reader' function in MATLAB 2023a?

I would like to access the information in a PCAPNG file using the 'vita49Reader' function in MATLAB R2023a. If the file extension cannot be passed into the function, what file extensions can be read by the 'vita49Reader' function and how can I access the information in the PCAPNG file?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The 'vita49Reader' does not depend on the file extension of the data passed in as an argument, but at the format of the data. To avoid an error when running the function, the data passed in should only contain VITA49 packets.

To successfully read a PCAPNG file in MATLAB you must first convert your PCAPNG file to a PCAP file which can then be used as an input for the 'vita49Reader' function.

You can follow the steps detailed below for the complete workflow that would allow a user to read a PCAPNG file with the 'vita49Reader' function:

1. Externally convert your PCAPNG file to a PCAP file.

2. Read and format the PCAP file in MATLAB using the following lines of code:

>> pcapObj = pcapReader("fileName.pcap");
>> pcapData = pcapObj.readAll;
>> data = arrayfun(@(x) pcapData(x).Packet.eth.Payload,1:numel(pcapData),UniformOutput=false);
>> fileID = fopen("data.bin","w"); % This will create the vita49 file
>> cellfun(@(x) fwrite(fileID,x(29:end)),data);
>> fclose(fileID);  

3. Once the VITA49 file named, 'data.bin', file is created, you can use the 'vita49Reader' function to read the file.