Raw RF data

[JohnyCilohokla]

I would be really interested in seeing lower level interfaces and while I understand that it can cause problem in the wrong hands it's really difficult to develop something new or even know if something is possible when there are no interfaces to work with. A good start that shouldn't cause too many problem would be a read only interface that would allow us to see more of the raw RF data, while this wouldn't be ideal for all cases it would allow us to test if something is even possible and when combined with "raw" 80211 packets that are already available to us it would open up a lot of use cases.

I'm working on a project that explores the idea of using 2.4ghz RF for accurate positioning/localization.

For this specific use case sending out small packets without an established connection at a 6/12/18+ Mbps rate would be ideal. Right now connection-less is limited to 1Mbps (based on what I have seen online), which we could work with if there is stable CSI available for (preferably broadcasted) packets (at the 1Mbps rate, this is not the case, there is no CSI generated at all), I suspect that if we could inspect raw RF data it should be possible to get way more accurate results for the positioning/localization.

Another options which I haven't explored yet is to "fake" mac addresses so that they match, which should allow unicast packets to be treated as broadcast packets, but there will be problems with this approach as well and I'm not sure if correct CSI would be generated and if there would be a way to tell apart different CSI frames from different sources.

The only other way to test the ideas without support from ESP32, would be to get multiple SDRs (software defined radio, ex. HackRF One or PlutoSDR), which would be expensive and that method might not translate well back to the ESP32.

[plajjd]

We are using ESP-NOW, but only sending broadcast packets. We are not defining any "peers", and so have a connectionless environment. (We implemented a source address in our proprietary packet data implementation so we could address individual devices, while maintaining a connectionless environment)

We have been able to increase the WiFi bit rate to 6 Mb/s and higher using the

Code: Select all

esp_wifi_internal_set_fix_rate()

function.

The documentation for increasing the WiFi bitrate is very limited. I am interested if there is an official Espressif recommendation about doing so? Specifically, increasing the bitrate while using the ESP-NOW protocol.

Phil.