[HN Gopher] Cell Towers Can Double as Cheap Radar Systems for Po...
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       Cell Towers Can Double as Cheap Radar Systems for Ports and Harbors
       (2014)
        
       Author : transpute
       Score  : 8 points
       Date   : 2025-06-29 21:48 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
        
       | timewizard wrote:
       | No? It's significantly smarter and easier to use AIS.
        
         | zomiaen wrote:
         | From the first paragraph: "Without radar installations, it can
         | be hard for port employees to detect small ships like those
         | employed by pirates or by the terrorists who attacked the USS
         | Cole in 2000"
         | 
         | I don't think this is intended to track the type of folks who
         | leave their AIS broadcasting.
        
         | jchulce wrote:
         | AIS, like ADSB, is secondary surveillance - not radar. It's a
         | mechanism for cooperative targets with functioning electronics
         | to identify themselves and provide operational information.
         | However, it does not detect uncooperative entities or those not
         | equipped with the electric transponders. For example, AIS won't
         | show you an enemy's invading fleet, and ADSB won't show
         | incoming missiles. Those needs are fulfilled by primary
         | surveillance radar, like the passive solution from this
         | article.
        
       | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
       | I spoke with a startup that is using 5G cell towers as radar.
       | They said it is high-enough resolution to perform gait
       | recognition.
        
         | userbinator wrote:
         | The 5G conspiracy theorists are paying attention.
        
         | bee_rider wrote:
         | Hmm. I wonder how big a different the whole 24Ghz vs 6Ghz thing
         | makes, when used as a radar.
        
         | polalavik wrote:
         | There's a whole host of radar research using OFDM/ Wifi (I
         | wrote a paper on the topic a while back where i implemented it
         | with some software defined radios).
         | 
         | The best paper on the topic is Martin Brauns[1]. It's insanely
         | comprehensive and easy to digest.
         | 
         | [1] https://publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/1000038892/2987095
        
         | makeitdouble wrote:
         | To properly understand, how much resolution is needed for that
         | ?
        
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