Signal Capture Pipeline Design Changes
Since there was no status report last week due to the midsemester break, we have made some considerable progress — as well as some significant changes — to our beamforming architecture. Based on the feedback from our presentation two weeks ago, we have decided against fabricating our own PCB to convert analog signals from the WiFi antennas to digital signals that we can process. Instead, we will be using an array of cheap SDRs (~$25 each) to capture the downconverted signals and convert them into digital signals. The downconversion will now be done using commodity downconverters, which we have already purchased and are en route.
My role was largely in organizing these changes. I also used two SDRs which we borrowed from Dr. Swarun Kumar to perform beamforming on radio signals in the FM band, which will be close to the intermittent frequency of the boards we ordered. Enock and I also met with one of Dr. Kumar’s graduate students, Atul Bansal, to further discuss possible modifications beamformer implementation, such as synchronization schemes, and to receive feedback on our implementation .
Design Report
As a group, we spent a considerable amount of time writing our design report. My contribution to this was the signal processing portions as well as miscellaneous contributions to the introduction, architechture overview, risk management, etc.
Progress Since Last Report
We have finalized our implementation and have ordered parts. We have a working beamformer implementation for signals in the FM band.
Plans for Next Week
Once our parts arrive we will begin integration and testing. Since the ordered parts are development boards, which are designed to be plug-and-play, we should be able to begin testing without delay.