Operating general purpose hardware as radio

• US 10,295,593 B2
• Filed: 11/16/2018
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technologies Corp. (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technologies Corp. (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Shake, Tyler, Edmison, Joshua N., Dishon, John, Mergen, John-Francis, Leuschner, Zachary, Wilder, Christopher, Wilkerson, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Garcia, Carlos
• Application Number:
  US16/193,713
• Publication Number:
  US 20190086470A1
• Time in Patent Office: 186 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3025 Wireless interface with the DUT
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/308 using non-ionising electromagnetic radiation, e.g. optical radiation investigating or analysing materials by the use of optical means G01N21/00; image analysis G06T7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206

Abstract

Embodiments includes an apparatus and method that intentionally illuminate a device with RF energy having specific characteristics (e.g., frequency, power, waveform, directionality, duration, etc.) to make a conductor of the device a transmitter. A method can include identifying data to be transmitted by the one or more conductors and providing a signal to the electrical or electronic circuitry to cause the electrical or electronic circuitry to change state and produce a first signal on the one or more conductors. The one or more conductors can produce a forced non-linear emission (FNLE) that is a mixture of the first signal and an electromagnetic wave incident thereon that, when decoded by an external device, corresponds to the data.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

electrical or electronic circuitry;

one or more conductors including one or more wires or traces electrically coupled to the electrical or electronic circuitry;

processing circuitry electrically coupled to the one or more conductors and electrical or electronic circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to perform operations comprising;

identifying data to be transmitted by the one or more conductors; and

providing a signal to the electrical or electronic circuitry to cause the electrical or electronic circuitry to change state and produce a first signal on the one or more conductors; and

wherein the one or more conductors produce a forced non-linear emission (FNLE) that is a mixture of the first signal and an electromagnetic wave incident thereon that, when decoded by an external device, corresponds to the data.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further include detecting the electromagnetic wave incident thereon.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein providing the signal to the electrical or electronic circuitry is in response to detecting the electromagnetic wave incident thereon.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein providing the signal to the electrical or electronic circuitry is in response to identifying that a schedule indicates that the electromagnetic wave will be or is incident on the one or more conductors.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the change of state includes changing one or more of a frequency, power, duty cycle, and duration of the first signal.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the device does not include a radio.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first signal is produced at a time when the electrical or electronic circuitry is to be in an idle state.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more conductors are outside of an RF shielding.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more conductors are exposed.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more conductors include a universal serial bus (USB), serial peripheral interface (SPI), or control area network (CAN) bus.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a memory including a lookup table, the lookup table including data indicating s state of the electrical or electronic circuitry and information that is transmitted by FNLE produced when the electrical or electronic circuitry is in the respective state.

12. A non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a machine, configure the machine to perform operations comprising:

identifying data to be transmitted by one or more non-antenna conductors; and

providing a signal to electrical or electronic circuitry of the machine to cause the electrical or electronic circuitry to change state and produce a first signal on the one or more non-antenna conductors; and

wherein the one or more non-antenna conductors produce a forced non-linear emission (FNLE) that is a mixture of the first signal and an electromagnetic wave incident thereon that, when decoded by an external device, corresponds to the data.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the operations further include detecting the electromagnetic wave incident thereon.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein providing the signal to the electrical or electronic circuitry is in response to detecting the electromagnetic wave incident thereon.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein providing the signal to the electrical or electronic circuitry is in response to identifying that a schedule indicates that the electromagnetic wave will be or is incident on the one or more conductors.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the change of state includes changing one or more of a frequency, power, duty cycle, and duration of the first signal.

17. A method comprising:

identifying, by processing circuitry of a device, data to be transmitted by one or more non-antenna conductors of the device; and

providing, by the processing circuitry, a signal to electrical or electronic circuitry of the machine to cause the electrical or electronic circuitry to change state and produce a first signal on the one or more non-antenna conductors; and

wherein the one or more non-antenna conductors produce a forced non-linear emission (FNLE) that is a mixture of the first signal and an electromagnetic wave incident thereon that, when decoded by an external device, corresponds to the data.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the device does not include a radio.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the first signal is produced at a time when the electrical or electronic circuitry is to be in an idle state.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

identifying, by a memory of the device including a lookup table, data indicating a state of the electrical or electronic circuitry and information that is transmitted by FNLE produced when the electrical or electronic circuitry is in the respective state.