TranQuiL: Long Range Detection and Localization of Interference in Radio Quiet Zones

Abstract Radio Quiet Zones (RQZs) have been established to prevent radio sources from causing harmful interference to sensitive radio telescopes, which study extremely faint cosmic radio waves. Even with strict regulations, such interference is growing due to the widespread use of consumer electronics, emitting in many different frequency bands, including Wifi, Bluetooth. Removal of interferers is often a matter of sending trucks with spectrum analyzers to perform localization, using signal power‐based localization techniques, a human‐intensive process. We present TranQuiL, a novel long‐range detection and localization system that can detect and localize an interfering transmitter at large distances. Our key innovation is the development of an improved beacon packet detection pipeline, which enables significant range improvement. We implement and evaluate our system for an interfering WiFi and Bluetooth transmitter across two testbeds: (a) the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia and (b) around a large manufacturing facility in a major U.S. city. We demonstrate a localization accuracy of 13.2 m in both test beds from 950 m away for WiFi transmitters and 450 m for Bluetooth transmitters, sufficient for building‐scale identification of the interferer's location.