How to monitor USB webcam bandwidth usage?

I would like to find out the amount of bandwidth my USB webcam occupies while I'm using it. I would prefer a command line solution.

3 Answers

Use usbtop, it gives a nice overview of what devices are using how much bandwidth:

Bus ID 1 (USB bus number 1) To device From device Device ID 1 : 0.00 kb/s 0.00 kb/s Device ID 2 : 0.00 kb/s 0.00 kb/s
Bus ID 2 (USB bus number 2) To device From device Device ID 1 : 0.00 kb/s 0.00 kb/s Device ID 4 : 141.73 kb/s 13777.68 kb/s Device ID 5 : 9.98 kb/s 11.24 kb/s Device ID 6 : 0.00 kb/s 0.00 kb/s Device ID 7 : 0.00 kb/s 0.00 kb/s Device ID 8 : 141.71 kb/s 15257.26 kb/s

Install and run it like so:

$ sudo apt install git cmake g++ libboost-dev libpcap-dev libboost-thread-dev libboost-system-dev
$ git clone
$ cd usbtop
$ cmake .
$ make
$ sudo src/usbtop

I think this can be done with wireshark.

When it is plug a USB device, in syslog it appear a message like

Feb 7 21:35:42 Computer kernel: [ 1237.639216] usb 2-1.1.4: new high-speed USB device number 8 using ehci_hcd

With this information, we know the device was plugged in bus 2 with device number 8.

The fire up wireshark

$ sudo wireshark

It will appear a list of devices... choose the one with same bus id you plug the device, in this case, "USB bus number 2" and start the capture.

In menu, choose "Statistics" then "IO Graphs".

Then in the graphs options, you can create a filter with just de device you want.

For example:

(usb.bus_id == 2) && (usb.device_address == 8)

In "X Axis" and "Y Axis" ajust the values to have a graphic with 'normal' values, for example Tick Interval: 1 sec, Unit: Bits/tick, and with that the graphic should be in Bits/sec.

IO Graphics

I've wrote a pair of shell scripts to get the throughput from a USB device. If someone what to use it, you can find it in this post.

getUsb.sh

#!/bin/bash
COUNTER=0;
# first get USB devices
IFS=$'\n'
USBDEVICES=$( lsusb | grep -v "0000:0000" | grep -iv "hub" )
CHOOSED_DEVICE=$(zenity --list --width=700 --height=500 --title "Connected USB devices" --column="Devices" ${USBDEVICES[@]})
unset IFS
echo ${CHOOSED_DEVICE}
echo ${CHOOSED_DEVICE} | cut -d: -f 1 | read
BUS=`echo ${CHOOSED_DEVICE} | cut -d: -f 1 | cut -d\ -f 2`
DEVICE=`echo ${CHOOSED_DEVICE} | cut -d: -f 1 | cut -d\ -f 4`
let BUS=$BUS+0
echo $BUS
echo $DEVICE
# create data to pipe
let totalIN=0;
let totalOUT=0;
echo "usbmon -i ${BUS} | grep "C Bo:${BUS}:${DEVICE}" ";
usbmon -i ${BUS} | grep "C B" | grep "${BUS}:${DEVICE}" | while read garb1 garb2 garb3 status garb5 value finalGarb; do if [[ $status =~ "Bo" ]]; then let totalIN=$totalIN+$value echo $totalIN > /tmp/counterUsbIN elif [[ $status =~ "Bi" ]]; then let totalOUT=$totalOUT+$value echo $totalOUT > /tmp/counterUsbOUT else echo "discarded" continue; fi
done

speedUsb.sh

#!/bin/bash -i
if [ $1 ]; then SLEEP=$1;
else SLEEP=1;
fi
PREV_VALUE_IN=`cat /tmp/counterUsbIN`
PREV_VALUE_OUT=`cat /tmp/counterUsbOUT`
LINECOUNT=$(tput lines);
while [ 1 ]; do if [ $LINECOUNT -ge $(tput lines) ]; then printf "%7s %7s \n" "IN" "OUT" LINECOUNT=2; else (( LINECOUNT++ )) fi sleep $SLEEP LAST_VALUE_IN=`cat /tmp/counterUsbIN` LAST_VALUE_OUT=`cat /tmp/counterUsbOUT` let VALUE_IN=${LAST_VALUE_IN}-${PREV_VALUE_IN} let PREV_VALUE_IN=${LAST_VALUE_IN} let VALUE_OUT=${LAST_VALUE_OUT}-${PREV_VALUE_OUT} let PREV_VALUE_OUT=${LAST_VALUE_OUT} mbytesSecIn=`echo "scale = 3; ${VALUE_IN}/${SLEEP}/1024/1024" | bc` mbytesSecOut=`echo "scale = 3; ${VALUE_OUT}/${SLEEP}/1024/1024" | bc` mbitsSecIn=`echo "scale = 3; ${VALUE_IN}*8/${SLEEP}/1024/1024" | bc` mbitsSecOut=`echo "scale = 3; ${VALUE_OUT}*8/${SLEEP}/1024/1024" | bc` printf "%7.3f %7.3f Mbytes/s %7.3f %7.3f Mbits/s\n" ${mbytesSecIn} ${mbytesSecOut} ${mbitsSecIn} ${mbitsSecOut}
done