Real-Time GHz-Wide Spectrum Sensing and Acquisition Using the Sparse FFT

A GHz-wide radio spectrum sensing device capable of real-time, cheap, and low-power measurements will be made. The hardware will build on recent advances in the area of sparse Fourier transforms, which show that one can capture the frequency representation of a sparse signal without sampling it at the Nyquist rate. Preliminary results from a feasibility study show it is possible to recover GHz of bandwidth using a few low-speed low-power analog-to-digital converters similar to those used in inexpensive Wi-Fi cards.

The research enables efficient spectrum utilization and scalable spectrum monitoring, and hence can help the government in managing this important resource. Further, realtime GHz spectrum sensing can help detecting radar signals, which are hard to detect using existing technologies. This could open up large swaths of spectrum for sharing, which would stimulate innovations in the mobile and wireless domain.