RadioHound: A Low-Cost Spectrum Sensor

Principal Investigator: Dr. Hochwald, Department of Electrical Engineering. This project also involves Drs. Laneman and Chisum, of the Department of Electrical Engineering, and Dr. Striegel from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Project Summary: RadioHound, an ongoing project at NDWI, is the development of low-cost, portable spectrum measurement sensors capable of tuning over a wide range of frequencies commonly used by everything from cellular phones to wireless local area networks, to radios and televisions. One goal is to distribute these sensors over a wide geographical area and thereby crowd-source the real-time measurements to create a “heat-map” of spectrum usage over the area and across frequency. Such a map would be used, for example, to determine where spectrum congestion is dense. We are on our third version of the sensor. 

We are in the ninth year of this project.

Student’s Role: The project has many hardware and software components and opportunities for students to contribute, depending on their technical software and hardware maturities and skillsets. Basic hardware and laboratory capabilities, and knowledge of C, Python, and networking are a plus, but not required. In particular, we have an opening for help with Version 3 of the board, including laboratory measurements, and experimental verification of spectrum heat-maps. Hence, knowledge of laboratory equipment and practices is advantageous.