miniNORAD: Real-Time ADS-B Telemetry & Aerial Data Pipeline

miniNORAD is a high-performance tracking station and data engineering pipeline designed to ingest, decode, and visualize real-time ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast) telemetry. Built on a Raspberry Pi 5 architecture, the project demonstrates the integration of Software Defined Radio (SDR) with modern data processing workflows to monitor global aviation traffic from a localized terrestrial position.

Project Overview

In modern aviation, ADS-B is the primary standard for tracking aircraft positions via satellite navigation. The system captures these raw 1090MHz radio frequency broadcasts, decodes the Mode S packets, and transforms them into structured data for analysis. This project serves as a testbed for handling high-velocity streaming data, signal optimization, and edge-compute resource management.

Technical Stack

• Hardware: Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB), FlightAware Pro Stick Plus (SDR USB Stick), and a 1090MHz ADS-B specialized high-gain antenna.
• Operating System: Fedora Linux.
• Data Ingestion: dump1090-fa for radio frequency decoding and digital signal processing (DSP).
• Pipeline & Logic: Python-based scripts for data normalization, coordinate validation, and API distribution.
• Observability: Integrated with the Theia monitoring framework to track CPU utilization, SDR thermal performance, and message-per-second (MPS) rates.

Hardware Engineering & Environmental Hardening

To ensure 24/7/365 operational continuity, miniNORAD is housed in a custom-engineered, weatherproof enclosure designed to withstand the Mid-Atlantic climate of Wilmington, DE. This external deployment minimizes RF interference and maximizes line-of-sight signal acquisition for the 1090MHz antenna.

Enclosure Specifications:

• Climate Control: Integrated passive and active cooling systems to manage the thermal output of the Raspberry Pi 5 during peak summer temperatures.
• Environmental Sealing: IP66-rated chassis protecting internal components from moisture, dust, and debris.
• Power Delivery: Surge-protected Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) implementation, allowing for a single-cable deployment for both data and high-stability power.

Infrastructure Monitoring & Alerting:

The enclosure is a "smart" node integrated directly into the Theia observability suite. miniNORAD doesn't just track aircraft; it tracks its own health:

• Thermal Watchdog: Real-time monitoring of CPU and SDR temperatures. If thresholds are breached, the system triggers an automated fan-curve adjustment or a graceful thermal throttle.
• Power Analytics: Monitoring for voltage drops or power instability that could indicate hardware fatigue or cable degradation.
• System Health Alerts: Critical hardware failures (e.g., SDR disconnects or storage read/write errors) are dispatched via the Telegraph (Telegram) alert engine for immediate remediation.

Maintenance & Sustainability

The physical design prioritizes modularity, allowing for rapid component swaps (SDR, filters, or compute modules) with minimal downtime. This reflects a commitment to high-availability (HA) infrastructure principles even at the edge-computing level.

Core Features

• Real-Time Aerial Tracking: Decodes aircraft identification, altitude, velocity, latitude, and longitude with sub-second latency.
• Automated Data Logging: Efficiently stores historical flight telemetry to identify local traffic patterns and seasonal aviation trends.
• Edge Processing: Performs data cleaning and altitude filtering locally on the Raspberry Pi before transmitting to upstream dashboards or databases.
• High-Availability Design: Engineered with automated service recovery and systemd watchdog timers to ensure 24/7/365 operational uptime.
• Messaging: Telegram Bot API (Telegraph).
• Database: SQLite / JSON-based lookup tables for ICAO hex identification.
• Logic: Asynchronous Python (asyncio) to ensure non-blocking alert dispatch during high-traffic intervals.

Engineering & Research Goals

Beyond simple tracking, miniNORAD explores several complex engineering challenges:

1. RF Signal Optimization: Tuning gain levels and managing signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) in a high-interference urban environment.
2. Stream Processing: Minimizing the "glass-to-glass" latency between radio packet reception and visual mapping.
3. Hardware Benchmarking: Evaluating the thermal and computational overhead of the Raspberry Pi 5 when processing high-density airspace data (up to 2,000+ messages per second).

High-Priority Event Orchestration (Telegraph)

miniNORAD includes a specialized "Telegraph" notification engine designed to identify and alert on high-interest aerial targets in real-time. By cross-referencing live Hex codes against curated databases, the system pushes instant notifications to mobile devices when specific criteria are met.

Alert Categories:

• Military & Government: Identification of transport, tactical, and surveillance aircraft operating within the local sector.
• VIP & Executive: Monitoring for civilian aircraft associated with state officials or high-profile transit.
• Medevac & Emergency: Real-time detection of life-flight and emergency medical services (EMS) utilizing priority transponder codes.

Implementation Logic:

1. Filtering: A Python-based event listener monitors the dump1090 JSON stream for specific ICAO Hex codes and squawk codes (e.g., 7700 for emergencies).
2. Logic Engine: Conditional triggers evaluate the aircraft's proximity, altitude, and heading to determine if an alert is warranted.
3. Dispatch: Verified events are formatted and dispatched via the Telegram Bot API ("Telegraph") to a private encrypted channel.

Ecosystem Integration

miniNORAD is a core component of the broader laboratory ecosystem:

• Theia: Provides the telemetry dashboard for hardware health and signal strength.
• TON618: Utilizes secure VPN tunnels for remote management of the miniNORAD tracking node.

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Maintained by Scienz_Guy | 2026