SNIFFER

for Detection of Lost Mobile Phones

Presented By
RAJASHREE PRAHARAJ, 1011016262
ECE-E

What Happens when you

lose your Mobile Phone?

Searching

Reporting

Praying

CONTENTS
What is a sniffer ?
What is IMEI?
Designing of the sniffer
Sniffer base station
Unidirectional Antenna
Tracking software
Working of sniffer device
Advantages
Limitations
References

What is a Sniffer?
The sniffer is basically a transceiver that works in the
frequency which is in the special unused range that is
operated by the service provider or at a frequency that is
much different than the one that is being used.
For the detection of lost mobile SNIFFER plays a vital
role .
The sniffer device has to be designed precisely and size
should be reduced for easy mobility for the purpose of
detection .

What is IMEI?
(International Mobile
Equipment Identifier)

What is IMEI?
I n t e r n a t i o n a l M o b i l e E q u i p m e n t I d e n t i fi e r

Each mobile device has a globally unique IMEI

15 digit unique code

identify-GSM/DCS/PCS phone

IMEI number is transmitted and checked against a data base

of black listed or grey listed phones in the networks EIR
(Equipment ID Register), if match found then the network can
perform different actions.
Used for blocking of call made by unauthorized person once
the mobile is reported as stolen

Gray List
Allow the Phone to be used, but
can be tracked to see who has
it.

Black List
Listing the phone from being
used on any number where
there is an EIR match

What Sniffer actually has?

Designing of the
Sniffer
The sniffer device can be called as a mobile
base station that includes the following
important components:

Sniffer base station

Unidirectional antenna

Tracking software

Small Base Station

Facilitates wireless communication between the user
equipment and the network
Sniffer is a small base station which includes
transceiver
section.
It operate at
a frequency that is much different
from the frequency of the current cell
Frequency generated by transceiver is around
900MHz(VHF)
Hence a proper cooling of the oscillator circuit,
generating the high frequency, has to be ensured.

Unidirectional Antenna

Antenna is a device which works at

specified frequency range for transmitting or
receiving the data signal.
Acts as the eyes of the sniffer for the
purpose of the detection.
Transmission power depends on lobe
pattern which varies from one antenna to the
other.
The power radiated by the antenna should
be properly designed in order to avoid
interference with the near by cells.
Effective gain has to be taken into account
as this shows the ability of the antenna to

(Unidirectional Antenna
Radiation Pattern)

Design Parameters of
Antenna
The shape of the radiation system is independent of R, as long R is
chosen to be sufficiently large and much greater than the
wavelength.
other factors : gain and directivity

Gain [G(
)]= ratio of the antenna radiated power density at a
distant point to the total antenna input power (Pin).

Directivity [D(
)]= the ratio of the antenna radiated power
density at a distant point to the total antenna radiated power (Prad)
radiated isotropically.

Design Parameters of
Antenna
Another factor: radiated power intensity U and total
radiated power Prad satisfy
2 the below relationship;
Prad =
U sin d d

0 0

The average power that gets radiated is given as:

Pavg = Prad/4 (watts per steradian)
Total incident power is:
Pin = Prad+Pl
The power gain of the antenna is given as:
gp = 4U/Pin
The ratio of gain power to the directive gain is referred as a
measure of efficiency of the antenna:

Contd..
effective area = aperture or capture area that is
exposed to the em waves and is related to the directive
gain of the antenna through the relation;
Aeff = gd2/4

Effective area and gain vary directly for a given

frequency and efficiency .
Unidirectional antenna = high gain and high directivity
(for long distance communication and better signal
quality)

Orientation of the antenna = fixed in one particular

Software for Tracking

Software helps in the process of creation of
the data base and this is mainly done using a
Random Access Memory(RAM).
Lost IMEI number is embedded in the chip.
It has the input as the IMEI number of the lost
mobile phone from the RAM using the SQL
query.
Programming is done with C or Java, but C is
most preferred as it is easily embedded within
the chips.

Working of the Sniffer

The entire working of

the sniffer is

categorized in two phases :

Before

Sniffer

increases

the

increases

the

frequency
After

Sniffer

frequency

Before Sniffer Increase The

Frequency

After Sniffer Increase The

Frequency

Fig: The lost mobile phone connection

establishes a connection with the sniffer

Sniffer tries to communicate with the

lost mobile phone

Fig: Sniffer trying to communicate

with the lost mobile phones.

Advantages
Useful in detection of lost mobile on a
large scale

Overall effective cost of the design

and the detection is low
Low power consumption

Limitations
Certain boundaries :
Power of the mobile should be
good enough
Mobile should not been in
shadow region

Note: Method can been improved by using modern

technology and devices

References
Schiller, Mobile Communication,
Education 1 Edition, 7th reprint -2003.

Pearson

R. S. Satya Sri Ambica, P. Padma Priya,

Dr.N.Srinivasu, Sniffer Technology to Detect
Lost Mobile , International Journal of
Engineering Trends & Technology, volume
4,issue4 April 2013.
Puthiyavan,U., Enhancing
Location Based Search Using
International
Conference
Information Devices 2007, May

User PrivacyMEMD , IEEE

on
Portable
2007, Pp-1-5.

Thank
You