DrIfTeR: A Drone Identification Technique using RF signals

Abstract

The civilian drone market is experiencing explosive growth, with projections estimating it will hit USD 54.81 billion by 2030. This surge in drone numbers brings with it significant privacy and security challenges. To defend critical infrastructure and safeguard personal privacy from misuse, an effective drone detection system has become essential. There is a demand for detection solution that is not only efficient and accurate but also robust, cost-effective, and scalable to meet the evolving needs of this rapidly expanding field. In this paper, we present DrIfTeR, a drone detection, identification and classification model based on the radio frequency signals. Firstly we employ wavelet domain extraction and 3-stage wavelet decomposition during RF signal preprocessing. Secondly, we employ traditional machine learning, deep learning and ensemble learning models to evaluate effectiveness. Thirdly, we evaluate performance of DrIfTeR against drone detection, drone manufacturer identification and drone model identification. The performance of the approach is evaluated against benchmark dataset and is found to be effective and accurate.