The goal is to have a completely transparent solution to forward USB packets from the host PC to the device (and back), while logging the data: that is, neither the host PC nor the device must be able to realise that there is a sniffer in the middle, intercepting packets.
Software solutions to capture packets already exist (e.g., USB Snoopy on Windows, USB monitor on Linux), but a hardware solution would have the advantage of:
- Not requiring any software modification
- Supporting proprietary OSes, where you may not have access to the software
- Allowing debugging of a new USB stack: If, let's say, you are developing a new USB stack for your preferred operating system, any software logging solution would obviously be as reliable as the stack you are currently developing, hence the usefulness of a hardware solution.
- Depending on the capabilities of the OTG and EHCI chips, being able to capture USB frames at a lower level, and maybe monitor for transmission errors for example.
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