International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 5, May-2013 1658
ISSN 2229-5518
IJSER © 2013
http://www.ijser.org
Multism development of unauthorized cell-phone
signal detector for multiple users
Lawal W. and Ogunti E.O.
Abstracts
The use of mobile phones (GSM) by all categories, classes and ages of people has become widespread. While this is laudable, the abuse of this
technology has however been on the high side in recent times. People often tend to forget and sometimes deliberately use their phones in unauthorized
places such as examination halls, correctional facilities (prisons and cells), religious places (mosques), banking halls, and confidential meetings. The
micro- miniaturization of these devices increases the risk to exploit and misuse this technology for diabolical and illegal purposes. For example, cell
phones hidden in a meeting room, or on a person, allows a competitor to listen in or record illegally vital protected information. In hospital settings,
Electromagnetic Interference (EMI), due to the presence or use of cell phones near sensitive electronic equipment may cause important patient-care
equipment to fail to perform properly, putting patients at risk. The use of mobile phones as aids for cheating in examinations has somewhat become a
menace in Nigeria. Consequently, a very real need exists today for individuals, businesses, institutions and the government to take measures to detect
and identify the unauthorized use of cell-phones within the bounds of any controlled premise. In this work, attempt is made to provide a mechanism to
forestall adverse consequences of unauthorized usage of cell phones in public buildings. Multism 11.0 version was used as appropriate CAD tool for the
development of a phone signal detector for multiple users. Any cell phone activity such as making or receiving calls, sending or receiving SMS will be
detected within the range of 5.8m.
Keywords: Signal detector, micro- miniaturization, Multism, active mode, correctional facilities, multiple users and buzzer alarming.
INTRODUCTION
Unauthorized mobile phone usage in both private and public
places has become a problem that may be difficult to solve.
[7].The technology added to cellular phones in the last 15 years
has made them a jack-of-all -trades for information storage and
transmission. Features like Bluetooth, USB, micro USB, high
resolution cameras, microphones, internet, and 802.11wireless
technology make cellular phones perfect for stealing data. The
only way of ensuring that a cellular phone is not in a secure area
is to have an accurate method for sniffing (detecting) them. Most
cellular phone sniffers available today only alarm if there is a
cellular phone or transmission device in the general
area.[1],[2],[3],[4]. They appear to alarm randomly and are not
very accurate. Detecting a cellular phone signal and location has
been a little problematic. The technique in this work provided
signal detection as well as signal location. A cell phone detector
can detect the signals use in the GSM band at about 900 MHz and
Digital Cellular System (DCS) at about 1800MHz.[1],[11],[12].
Since the signals are digitally encoded, the sniffer can only detect
the signal activity, and not the speech or the message contents of
the signal. The sniffer only receives and doesn't transmit, making
it great for areas sensitive to cellular phone usage. Over the last
three decades, the number of cell phones, laptops and other
electronic mobile devices has increased tremendously [13],[ 6],
[8]. In the last few years, these mobile devices have started to be
equipped, besides cellular interfaces (GSM), with peer-to-peer
communication technologies, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. They
enable new services and applications such as context-aware
applications. In France, a service that will allow a person passing
in front of a movie advertising board to download the trailer on
his mobile phone via Bluetooth or Infrared is currently under
development. In front of a car billboard, buyers will be able to
receive the address of the closest car dealer by SMS. Another
benefit provided by these new communication technologies is the
possibility given to friends to automatically detect friend’s
location and exchange information through mobile social
networks [13]. The Cellular telephone (commonly mobile phone,
cell phone or hand phone) is a long-range, portable electronic
device used for mobile communication. In addition to the
standard voice function of a telephone, current mobile phones can
support many additional services such as SMS for text messaging
and mail delivery, packet switching for access to the Internet, and
MMS for sending and receiving photos and video. Most current
mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell
sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched
telephone network (PSTN) except satellite phone [1],[9]. Cellular
telephone is also defined as a type of short-wave analog or digital
Telecommunication in which a subscriber has a wireless
connection from a mobile telephone to a relatively nearby
transmitter. The transmitter span of coverage is called a cell.
Generally, cellular telephone service is available in urban areas
and along major highways. As the cellular telephone user moves
from one cell or area of coverage to another, the telephone is
effectively passed on to the local cell transmitter.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The first stage in the design of this sniffer system involves the use
of a CAD tool, Multism. Here a circuit was design using Op-Amp
and RC filter for signal sniffing. The stability of the circuit was
established using S-parameter and the K factor of the Op-Amp.,
else the amplifier may turn into an oscillator. Different sniffing
circuits were evaluated through simulation in Multism. The
various circuits simulated were shown in fig.1 to 6.
A sniffer circuit [1], available commercially was simulated using
Multism to confirm its performances. The maximum range cover
by this circuit is 1.5m. Since the goal of this research is to exceed
1.5m, efforts were made to redesign the circuit to allow coverage
of larger area such as correctional facilities, examination halls and
big banking halls, i.e., to have coverage of about 6m in radius.
Following design procedure, the circuit of fig1 was developed.
Simulation of the design in fig 1 in the GSM frequency of
900MHz and 1800MHz was done.
IJSER