Channel Sounding for the Masses: Low Complexity GNU 802.11b Channel Impulse Response Estimation

New techniques in cross-layer wireless networks are building demand for ubiquitous channel sounding, that is, the capability to measure channel impulse response (CIR) with any standard wireless network and node. Towards that goal, we present a software-defined IEEE 802.11b receiver and CIR measurement system with little additional computational complexity compared to 802.11b reception alone. The system implementation, using the universal software radio peripheral (USRP) and GNU Radio, is described and compared to previous work. We validate the CIR measurement system and present the results of a measurement campaign which measures millions of CIRs between WiFi access points and a mobile receiver in urban and suburban areas.

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