Software-Defined Radio Techniques For Geolocation of First-Responder Transceivers
Open Access
- Author:
- Gardner, Christopher B.
- Area of Honors:
- Electrical Engineering
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. Sven G Bilén, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Sven G Bilén, Thesis Supervisor
John Douglas Mitchell, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- software defined radio
sdr
geolocation
angle of arrival
aoa
usrp
gnu radio - Abstract:
- This work explores the implementation of a software-defined solution to radio geolocation. In the event of a natural disaster or other catastrophic event where existing communications infrastructures were destroyed, multiple relief organizations would arrive on-scene and find available spectrum space limited. To assist in dynamically allocating spectrum space, it is valuable to know where each emitter is positioned in the field. A software-defined radio presents an advantage in this type of environment because its waveform parameters, such as operating frequency and modulation type, can be changed in software without any hardware modifications. This allows for a greater degree of interoperability with existing hardware radios that the relief organizations already own. Classical methods of geolocation rely on signal subspace separation techniques that use computationally complex calculations, such as matrix covariance estimation and eigen-decomposition. These methods are not suitable for mobile applications where size, power, and speed must be optimized. By taking advantage of the multi-stage Wiener filter, which separates the signal space more efficiently, an angle of arrival geolocation algorithm is implemented that is more suitable for the harsh environment of a disaster relief effort. The investigation of software-defined radio technology is an important topic of research within The Pennsylvania State University's Systems Design Lab. With research interests in wireless sensor networks and satellite communications, the study of software-defined radio techniques is relevant to reducing development times and increasing flexibility in these areas.