Features Smokeping

Smokeping Integration

DOCSight can display live latency graphs from your Smokeping instance, giving you network latency and packet loss data alongside your DOCSIS signal metrics.

What is Smokeping?

Smokeping continuously pings configured network targets and visualizes the results as graphs showing latency distribution, jitter, and packet loss over time. Combined with DOCSight's DOCSIS monitoring, you can see whether latency spikes correlate with signal degradation or are caused by something further upstream.

Setup

1. Install and configure Smokeping on your network (e.g., as a Docker container)
2. Note the base URL of your Smokeping web interface (e.g., http://192.168.178.15:8067/smokeping)
3. In DOCSight Settings, expand Smokeping
4. Enter the Smokeping URL and your target names (comma-separated)
5. Save

Target names must match the hierarchy in your Smokeping configuration. For example, a target at Global > Google becomes Global.Google.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
SMOKEPING_URL	Base URL of your Smokeping instance (without /cache/)
SMOKEPING_TARGETS	Comma-separated list of targets (e.g., Global.Google, Vodafone.Hop2)

Live Graph View

The Smokeping section in the sidebar shows live graphs for all configured targets with four timespan tabs:

Timespan	What it shows
3h	Last 3 hours -- detailed, per-ping view
30h	Last 30 hours -- shows diurnal patterns
10d	Last 10 days -- weekly trends
1y	Last year -- seasonal overview

How It Differs from BQM

	Smokeping	BQM
Data source	Your own Smokeping instance	ThinkBroadband's servers
Storage	No local storage, proxied live	Daily PNG snapshots stored in DB
Refresh	Real-time with 60s cache	Once per day
Targets	Configurable (any host)	Fixed (your ThinkBroadband line)
Latency detail	Per-ping distribution	Aggregated min/avg/max bands

Use Smokeping when you want real-time latency monitoring to specific endpoints. Use BQM when you want a daily quality overview from an external perspective.

Technical Details

Unlike BQM (which stores daily snapshots), Smokeping uses a proxy approach:

• DOCSight proxies graph requests directly to your Smokeping instance's CGI
• Each graph load triggers Smokeping to regenerate its cache with fresh data
• A short cache (60 seconds) prevents excessive requests when switching views
• No database storage needed, graphs are always current