Unauthorized Telecommunication Device Detection with Portable Interrogation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for identifying and managing contraband wireless devices in secured facilities are costly and prone to issues such as network 'bleed' into surrounding areas, affecting legitimate communications and allowing contraband devices to bypass restrictions.
Innovation Solution
An interrogation system emulates a base station to identify and locate contraband devices by broadcasting signals across various carriers and protocols, comparing against authorized lists, and using triangulation techniques with multiple receivers to determine device locations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a managed access system with base stations is deployed at the facility, then contraband devices can be intercepted and monitored, but the system incurs exorbitant operational costs and causes network bleed into surrounding areas
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the harmful base station infrastructure from the facility environment and replaces it with portable interrogation systems that can be temporarily deployed only when needed. This removes the continuous network bleed problem while retaining the ability to detect and intercept contraband device communications on demand.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of continuous base station operation, the system employs periodic sweeps using portable interrogation systems that activate only when contraband device activity is suspected. This reduces operational costs and eliminates continuous network bleed while maintaining detection capability through scheduled or event-triggered scanning.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If base station antenna power is reduced to minimize network bleed, then legitimate external communications are preserved, but contraband devices can access external base stations and bypass restrictions
Solution Approach 1:
The portable interrogation system acts as an intermediary that temporarily establishes communication pathways only when needed for detection. It mediates between the need to block contraband devices and the need to allow legitimate communications by providing on-demand interception capability without continuous presence.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary scanning and detection using portable equipment before any interception action is taken. This allows the facility to identify contraband device activity and respond with targeted interception only when necessary, rather than maintaining continuous blocking that would interfere with legitimate communications.
3Reliability
If permanent base stations are deployed for continuous monitoring, then contraband devices can be consistently detected, but operational costs become prohibitively expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive permanent base station infrastructure with relatively inexpensive portable interrogation systems that can be deployed temporarily. These short-lived deployments are cost-effective because they eliminate the need for continuous operation of expensive fixed infrastructure while maintaining detection capability when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from continuous monitoring to periodic sweeps using portable equipment. This reduces operational costs by activating detection resources only when contraband device activity is suspected or during scheduled scanning periods, rather than maintaining constant monitoring with permanent infrastructure.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects for identifying and locating contraband telecommunication devices are disclosed. In one such aspect, a system for locating unauthorized wireless devices may be deployed at a secured facility. The system contains base stations, and a processing system configured to identify wireless networks in a facility; obtain a transmission plan for detecting wireless devices at the facility; detect the wireless devices in the facility by executing the transmission plan on the identified wireless networks and free space in the facility; compare the detected wireless devices against a list of known authorized wireless devices to identify unauthorized devices; interrogate the identified potential unauthorized devices at multiple time intervals; extract at least an identifier for one of the identified potential unauthorized devices based on the results of the interrogation; and determine an estimated location of the identified unauthorized devices based on the results from the interrogation