Noise Mapping with KSQL, a Raspberry Pi and a Software-Defined Radio
Our new cat, Snowy, is waking early. She is startled by the noise of jets flying over our house. Can I determine which plane is upsetting her by utilizing Apache Kafka®, KSQL (the streaming SQL engine for Apache Kafka) and a Raspberry Pi? Perhaps a nice dashboard will distract her and let me get a bit more sleep.
Aircraft determine their position using GPS receivers. An onboard transponder periodically transmits the position along with aircraft identity string, altitude and speed using short radio transmissions. These automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) transmissions are data packets that can be freely received by ground stations.
A tiny computer, such as a Raspberry Pi, and a handful of supporting components are all that are required to receive aircraft transponder messages of the planes flying over my house.
These aircraft transmissions are not coordinated—the messages appear as a jumble of interwoven transmissions. Unraveling these mixed data streams is complex , like trying to understand a conversation when everyone’s talking at the same time at a party. Therefore, I decided to use a combination of Kafka and KSQL to find the plane that’s upsetting my cat.
