Address direction finding of ZigBee devices

Abstract

Statement of problem. The active use of wireless technologies requires the development of means of monitoring devices and data transmission networks and, in particular, ZigBee wireless personal networks. Therefore, the detection and localization of working ZigBee devices is an urgent task of radio monitoring services. Correlation-interferometric direction finders based on two-channel radio receiving equipment cyclically connected to various pairs of elements of a multi-element antenna system can serve as a tool for bearing radio signals. For the direction finding of packet radio signals, the direction finder accumulates time samples from different antenna pairs over long time intervals; joint processing of these data allows determining the direction of arrival of radio signals. An obstacle to the direction finding of ZigBee devices is the fact that many similar devices can simultaneously operate in the same frequency range, generating a chaotic alternation of packets in the air. As a consequence, the accumulation of information from a specific ZigBee device for different antenna pairs of the direction finder becomes problematically. Purpose of the work is to develop a method for joint identification and bearing of detected devices of ZigBee networks. Results. the presented method of address bearing is implemented on the basis of the mobile direction finder ARTICLE-M, used to search for and locate unauthorized sources of radio emissions, and allows detecting signals of the 802.15.4 standard, identifying personal network devices, as well as forming estimates of directions to these sources of radio emissions. Practical importance. the use of address bearing of ZigBee network devices increases the functionality of existing radio monitoring equipment, and also allows the localization of unauthorized radio sources masquerading as Internet of Things devices.