Demo: Electrosense - Spectrum Sensing with Increased Frequency Range

Abstract

This demo introduces an expansion board for Electrosense, a system for crowdsourced spectrum monitoring and analysis. The first generation of Electrosense sensor nodes, was based on a low cost Software Defined Radio (SDR) dongle with a frequency range limited to 24 MHz - 1.7 GHz. The new generation adds a custom made down-converter that extends the capabilities of the SDR dongle, enabling spectrum monitoring from almost DC up to 6 GHz. The low cost of the proposed sensor nodes allows for a large scale deployment which generates a massive amount of RF spectrum data. A server backend performs storage and data analysis. All the data and the results are available through an public open API. The goal of the demo is to introduce the hardware platform and illustrate how a combination of the default sensor and the expansion board can be used to flexibly scan multiple frequency bands.