Rolando Baltazar-Felipe

Bio

I am a senior at Indiana University in the Intelligent Systems Engineering Department with a concentration in Bioengineering and minors in Chemistry and Mathematics. My research focuses on radiation effects on specific emitter identification (SEI) of software defined radios (SDRs). 

SEI has a wide application of research ranging from Internet of Things to satellite constellations. While current works in the community provide radiation effects on RF front-end components, there is minimal literature discussing the capabilities and vulnerabilities of SEI in space environments. My current research focuses on providing a better understanding of these capabilities through radiation testing of SDRs and signal analysis.

Research

Radiation Effects in Specific Emitter Identification of Software Defined Radios

My current work has presented degradation of SEI across radiation using Radio Frequency (RF) Fingerprints. Transmitted preambles from an emitting SDR under radiation are able to be processed to remove the intentional modulation in a signal and maintain the unintentional modulation used in SEI. Exposing B200mini SDRs to Cobalt-60 gamma rays has shown a drift in the individual components of waveforms at varying intensities across a number of SDRs which are the same model.

My immediate research focuses on how the power amplifier and transceiver on SDRs affect SEI classification when the specific components are irradiated. I've conducted X-ray testing on the specific components and am completing signal analysis to gain a better understanding of how SEI is affected relative to the components.