Decoding IEEE 802.11a/g/p OFDM in Software using GNU Radio

We just released an Open Source receiver that is able to decode IEEE 802.11a/g/p OFDM frames in software. This is the first Software Defined Radio (SDR) based OFDM receiver supporting channel bandwidths up to 20 MHz that is not relying on additional FPGA code. Our receiver comprises all layers up to parsing the MAC header and extracting the payload of IEEE 802.11a/g/p networks. In our demo, visitors can interact live with the receiver while it is decoding over the air frames. The impact of moving the antennas and changing the settings are displayed live in time and frequency domain. Furthermore, the decoded frames are piped to Wireshark where the WiFi traffic can be further investigated. It is possible to access and visualize the data in every decoding step from the raw samples, frame detection, channel estimation, up to the decoded MAC packets. The receiver is completely Open Source and represents one step towards experimental research with SDRs.