Using your smartphone to detect and map heterogeneous networks and devices in the home

Abstract

Heterogeneity in the wireless spectrum is an increasing problem which breaks down coordination and exacerbates wireless interference. In particular, this is a growing problem in the home: heterogeneity is increasing, yet there is a lack of tools and expertise in the home to gather the necessary information about its RF environment to combat this issue. In this paper, we present a unique monitoring system design which leverages the smartphone: now commodity, flexible and familiar to the home user, and equipped with multiple heterogeneous for sensing. Our design overcomes challenges inherent to monitoring with the phone (e.g., it is location agnostic without in-door localization) to derive where signals go and what they interfere with. It does so only requiring simple user-interaction, and as we will show, can bring the information to a level the user can understand.