Automating 3D wireless measurements with drones

Abstract

Wireless signals and networks are ubiquitous. Though more reliable than ever, wireless networks still struggle with weak coverage, blind spots, and interference. Having a strong understanding of wireless signal propagation is essential for increasing coverage, optimizing performance, and minimizing interference for wireless networks. Extensive studies have analyzed the propagation of wireless signals and proposed theoretical models to simulate wireless signal propagation. Unfortunately, models of signal propagation are often not accurate in reality. Real-world signal measurements are required for validation. Existing methods for collecting wireless measurements either involve researchers walking to each location of interest and manually collecting measurements, or place sensors at each measurement location. As such, they require large amounts of time and effort and can be costly. We propose DroneSense, a system for measuring wireless signals in the 3D space using autonomous drones. Drone-Sense reduces the time and effort required for measurement collection, and is affordable and accessible to all users. It provides researchers with an efficient method to quickly analyze wireless coverage and test their wireless propagation models.