Traditional approaches to experimental characterization of wireless communication systems typically involves highly specialized and small-scale experiments to examine narrow aspects of each of these applications. We are the developing the Drexel Grid SDR Testbed, a unified experimental framework to rapidly prototype and evaluate these diverse systems using: (i) field measurements to evaluate real time transceiver and channel-specific effects and (ii) network emulation to evaluate systems at a large scale with controllable and repeatable channels. We hope that this testbed will enable research and educational activities in a broad set of topics including cybersecurity, cyber-physical systems, drone-based networking, smart cities, and the Internet of Things. This research is supported by NSF CNS-1730140, NSF CNS-1738070, and NSF CNS-1828236. Read more

Through collaboration with the Drexel Center for Functional Fabrics, DWSL has engaged in research to develop biomedical smart textiles for a variety of applications ranging from infant respiration monitoring, to pregnancy monitoring, as well as detection and treatment of chronic venous insufficiency and deep vein thrombosis. This research is supported by NSF CNS-1816387, NSF IIP-1430212, and NIH U01-EB023035. Read more

Through sponsorship from the National Science Foundation, DWSL researchers are developing new reconfigurable intelligent surface technology. Some of the most promising recent research relates to 6G, IoT and defense applications of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces. This research is enabled by simulation data and prototypes in several areas of focus, and is supported by NSF CNS-1816387. Read more

Through sponsorship from the National Science Foundation, and as part of the DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge, a team of Drexel University undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors developed a Collaborative Intelligent Radio Network (CIRN). This research is supported by NSF CNS-1738070 and NSF CNS-1730140. Read more

Preparing researchers to use a system like the Drexel SDR Grid Testbed is challenging because it may require antennas, communications, and signal processing knowledge typically taught in electrical engineering curricula with application layer, networking layer, and linux-based coding development typically taught to computer engineers and computer scientists. Thus, we have developed educational modules using the testbed for undergraduate coursework teaching the fundamentals of analog and digital communication. We have also offered and delivered graduate and undergraduate laboratory coursework in Wireless Network Security. In addition, we are building a Radio Wars graphical user interface to the testbed to allow students to see a graphical representation of the network while using gamification to stoke student interest. This research is supported by DGE-1723606, NSF CNS-1730140, and CNS-1828236. Read more

mmWave communication systems are poised to play a significant role in future wireless standards. We are developing new antenna technologies, conducting field measurements, and developing wireless networking testbeds for mmWave systems. This research is supported by NSF CNS-1828236 and ONR-N00014-16-1-2037. Read more

We are developing software defined radio driven reconfigurable antennas for unmanned aerial vehicles. We are conducting urban field tests of various UAV sensing and communication applications. We are also developing a testbed to allow such systems to be evaluated in a laboratory setting. This research is supported by NSF CNS-1457306, NSF CNS-1422964, NSF CNS-1028608. Read more

Electrically reconfigurable antennas are capable of changing their radiation characteristics in response to the needs of the overlying communication link and network. We have build new geometries for electrically reconfigurable antennas and have demonstrated how these antennas can be used in diverse applications ranging from throughput maximization and interference management to physical layer security. Support for this research includes NSF CNS-1457306, NSF CNS-1422964, and NSF CNS-1028608. Read more

We are developing networking technologies for Internet of Things devices making use of Functional Fabrics. This research was supported by NSF CNS-1816387.Read more

As the Internet of Things (IoT) is increasingly becoming reality, there is a need for wireless transceivers that can be made out of non-traditional materials (i.e., without conventional printed circuit boards) so that they can be unobtrusively integrated into everyday devices. DWSL has developed antennas made out of different non-traditional antenna materials including conductive polymers, silver-coated nylon threads, and metallic two-dimensional (2D) titanium carbide (MXene) which can be “spray painted”. This research is supported by NSF CNS-1457306 and the U.S. Army CEREDEC. Read more

We are developing reconfigurable antennas for interference alignment and multi-user MIMO communication systems. This research was supported by NSF CNS-1422964.Read more

We have demonstrated how MIMO space time coding techniques, typically developed and used in the radio frequency domain, can also be used for free space optical network links. This Research was supported by NSF ECCS-0524200. Read more

We have demonstrated how OFDM techniques, typically used in the radio frequency domain, can also be used for through metal communication links. This technology has numerous potential applications in industrial IoT and defense communication systems. This research was supported by US Army CERDEC, ONR, and NSF CNS-0923003. Read more

Wireless sensor networks in urban environments will be an important enabling technology for future smart cities. Working with the Philadelphia Clean Air Council, we have done some work with deploying urban air quality sensor networks in dense urban areas for environmental monitoring applications. We have also developed sensor network placement optimization techniques for homeland security applications. This research was supported by the EPICS in IEEE program. Read more

We have developed software defined radio prototypes for both single array and multi-array communication systems. Read more

We have leveraged computational electromagnetic techniques for both near field modeling (e.g., mutual coupling) and far-field (e.g., large-scale propagation) modeling. We have applied these techniques to help design array based communication systems techniques that can perform enhanced direction finding and cell coverage area scultping. There are applications of these techniques in both smart antenna and MIMO systems. Read more

Software-defined radios (SDRs) have been an effective research tool for wireless development and testing in the past, and they are a natural candidate for addressing the need to prototype mmWave communication networks. There is a pressing need for the development of the proposed mmWave SDR Network Testbed, a unified experimental framework to rapidly prototype and evaluate diverse mmWave network architectures using: i.) field measurements to evaluate real time mmWave transceiver and channel-specific effects and ii.) network emulation to evaluate systems at a large scale. This research is supported by NSF CNS-1828236. Read more