Need help with Installation?

If you need help with installation of WiSense on your device, we are ready to install it for you. You just need to purchase the device and ship it to us. Please see Need Help section for more details.

Overview

WiSense is an Android based platform being developed by the WiNGS Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for wireless debugging and diagnosis in both enterprise and home WLANs. The platform allows users to analyze real-time RF activity across different WiFi channels, monitor the signal quality of neighboring WLANs and detect the presence of neighboring non-WiFi activity. The ease of usage and mobility provided by handheld smartphone and tablet platforms can allow network administrators as well as users to identify location specific wireless performance issues in their WLANs. This tool is also being developed as part of our group's efforts to collect data about wireless performance at different locations and share it with the community.

So, in brief, WiSense lets you:

  • Analyze real-time heatmap of RF activity across different WiFi channels.
  • Detect neighboring non-WiFi activity.
  • Monitor neighboring WiFi activity and airtime utilization across different WiFi channels.
  • Scan neighboring SSIDs.
  • Perform active thoughput and latency measurements.

Please watch the small introduction video to get a feel of WiSense. Happy WiSens'ing' :D !!!


To know more about the application, see our Features section below.

Features

Following is the breakdown of different capabilities provided by WiSense:

Spectrum Heat Map

Using WiSense, users can visualize a real-time heat map of the RF activity across different 20 MHz WiFi channels through a waterfall display.


Events

This tab provides a live, time-series view of the neighboring non-WiFi (e.g., Microwave Ovens) activity. This helps users identify the potential non-WiFi interference in the vinicity. Apart from the real-time activity, this tab keeps track of the recent activity as well.


Non-WiFi Detected Devices

Similar to the "Events" tab, users can also see information about detected non-Wifi devices in a list format. WiSense also provides other details about the detected non-WiFi devices such as their signal strengths, start and end time, operating frequency, bandwidth and duration. Apart from the real-time non-WiFi device activity, this tab keeps track of eariler detected activity as well.


SSID

This tab lists the neighboring WiFi SSIDs as well their channel frequency and signal strengths. This information can used to analyze the coverage of wireless networks at different locations as well as determine which APs may be impacted by neighboring non-WiFi activity.


Channel Utlization

The tab provides live information about the channel airtime utilization (between 0 to 100%) for WiFi channels 1, 6 and 11 at the current location. This can be used to visualize the total airtime used by neighboring WiFi and non-WiFi activity. High airtime indicates potential channel congestion and can cause poor WiFi performance


Active Measurements

This feature allows a user to perform active throughput measurements using iperf between the device and a remote server. It can be use to determine the available throughput over the WiFi link using active measurements.


Supported Devices and Android versions

Please note that only following devices and Android versions are being currently supported for WiSense:

  • Galaxy Nexus (Cyanogenmod 10.1 and Android 4.2.2)
  • Nexus 7 2012 (Cyanogenmod 10.1 and Android 4.2.2)
  • Nexus 7 2013 (Android 4.3)
 Devices

We're working on getting WiSense on other range of devices. So, please stay tuned!

Download

You can now get WiSense on Google PlayStore. But, before downloading the application, please go through the Getting Started document for instructions to update your kernel.

Is your device supported?

Before downloading WiSense, please make sure that you have one of the devices mentioned in the Supported Devices section.

Get it on Google Play

Need Help?

Please feel free to get in touch with us in case you need any help at any step. Whether it be updating the kernel, installing, downloading or using the application on your device, or anything else, we are here to help you throughout the installation process. Please find our contact information in Contact us section, and we also welcome your comments in the Comments Section.

To enable wider adoption of WiSense, we also offer to do the installation for you, thereby giving you following options:

  1. If you already have one of the listed Supported Devices (with bootloader unlocked), you can ship it to us.
  2. Else, you can also order one of the Supported Devices on any merchant site (like, Amazon or Google Play), and ship it to following address:

    Prof. Suman Banerjee
    1210 West Dayton St.
    Department of Computer Sciences
    University of Wisconsin
    Madison, WI 53706, USA

Our team will then install the WiSense update and application for you on your device, and we'll cover the cost of shipping back the device to you!

In either case, we'll need the following information from you:

  • Primary Contact Name
  • Email Address
  • Phone Number
  • Tracking Number of your shipment
  • Mailing Address

Comments

We value your feedback. Please feel free to drop your comments or suggestions regarding the application below.