[HH] Intro to XTRX - a tiny Software Defined Radio board

[Tom Metro]

Alexander Chemeris wrote:
> I'll be presenting XTRX - a new miniPCIe Software Defined Radio. It's
> not only the smallest full duplex SDR, but also one of the top
> performing ones - you can run GSM, UMTS, LTE, LoRaWAN, BTLE, WiFi and a
> lot more on it.

Thanks to Kurt for sharing this with the group and Alexander for presenting.

SDRs have a lot of applications in the realm of bridging open source
hardware with proprietary designs. The RF interface ends up being an API
of sorts.


I've seen a rather mundane application of this: a hardware hacker I
follow on YouTube (I think it was Great Scott,
https://www.youtube.com/user/greatscottlab) used an SDR to interface
something like an Arduino to some inexpensive Chinese made remote
control outlets. This way instead of having to deal with relays and high
voltage, or having to use a more expensive home automation outlet, a
cheap RF controlled device could be used.

There are thousands of similar inexpensive RF controlled devices that
are out of reach for integration with home automation or D-I-Y projects.
They mostly use simple protocols over 433 MHz, but don't follow any
universal standard.

You don't need something as sophisticated as XTRX to make use of such
devices, but I'm sure some of the principles discussed in tonight's talk
will apply.


There are a couple of SDR applications I'd like to pursue:

One is using an SDR in passive mode to listen to wireless alarm sensors.
This can be a way to bridge a proprietary wireless alarm system to an
open hardware home automation platform. Motion sensor triggers and
whatnot can then be used to turn on lights. The home automation platform
can also act as a back-up alarm panel. One with Internet connectivity
that doesn't require a proprietary interface to alarm.com or some other
vendor. The SDR could also detect low battery signals from the sensors
or jamming signals, and trigger alerts over the network.

Another is passive data collection of cell phones in the area. WiFi MAC
addresses, GSM/LTE network IDs, etc. This could be logged in a loop, and
saved if an alarm event happens, so these identifiers can be used to
identify who breached an alarm protected property. (There are legal
issues to be addressed for this use case. Most likely if GSM/LTE is
used. Definitely if it is necessary to spoof a tower like a "stingray"
to perform the data collection. I haven't learned yet whether you can
collect useful info with just passive GSM/LTE data collection.)


There are semi-turn-key solution for WiFi data collection, like:
http://hakshop.myshopify.com/collections/wifi-pineapple-kits/products/wifi-pineapple?variant=81044992

Hak5 has other radio products also, ranging from cheap, receive-only
SDRs, to a "hardware defined radio" (Yard Stick One), to an expensive,
wide-band transceiver SDR (HackRF One):
http://hakshop.myshopify.com/collections/wireless-gear

 -Tom