Direction finding with a four-element Adcock-Butler matrix antennaarray

The conventional analog Adcock-Butler matrix (ABM) antenna array direction finder suffers from systemic errors, component matching problems, and bandwidth limitations. Three digital bearing estimators are developed as candidates to replace the analog signal processing portion of the ABM. Using the same antenna array, they perform all signal processing in the frequency domain, thereby benefitting from the computational efficiency of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm. The first estimator requires two analog-to-digital converters (A-D) and three antenna elements. It multiplies the difference between the discrete Fourier transforms (DFTs) of the output signals from two antenna elements with that from a third antenna element. At each frequency component, the phase of this product is a function of the bearing. A weighted least squares (LS) fit through all the phase components then gives a bearing estimate. The second estimator is similar to the first but uses three A-D and all four antenna elements. The output signal from the additional antenna element provides an independent estimate of the weights for the LS fit, giving an improvement in accuracy. The third estimator applies the physical constraint existing between the time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) of a signal intercepted by two perpendicular sets of antenna elements. This yields a better estimator than simple averaging of the bearing from each set of antenna elements. The simulation studies used sinusoids and broadband signals to corroborate the theoretical treatment and demonstrate the accuracy achievable with these estimators. All three direction finders have superior performance in comparison with the analog ABM     

Simplified covariance matrix measurement in adaptive arrays

A procedure to measure the covariance matrix of an antenna array directly from the array sum port is described. The procedure involves specifically chosen sets of antenna weights that will allow the matrix components to appear at the array output. A parallel method of measuring the covariance matrix is also described. The accuracy requirements of the power measurements are examined analytically and through simulation     

Rapid convergence by cascading Applebaum adaptive arrays

An adaptive array architecture is described which has improved convergence speed over the conventional Applebaum array when the eigenvalue spread of the input signal covariance matrix is large. The architecture uses N+1 Applebaum adaptive arrays in a two-layer cascaded configuration. The gain constants in the first layer are set so that large interfering sources are quickly nulled, but small interfering sources are suppressed more slowly. Since the first layer removes the large interfering signals, the gain constant for the second layer can be set to a large value to quickly null the smaller interferers. The adaptation time is examined for several combinations of signal levels and array sizes. It is shown that, in many signal environments, the computational requirements for the cascaded array compare favorably with those of conventional sample matrix inversion (SMI) methods for large arrays     

空域数据重排的后多普勒自适应处理方法

传统的后多普勒自适应处理方法,如因子法(FA)和扩展因子法(EFA)虽然能大大降低自适应处理时的运算量和独立同分布样本的需求量,但由于实际中均匀训练样本数目的限制,当天线阵元数进一步增大时,FA和EFA抑制杂波和检测动目标的能力会显著恶化。针对这一问题,提出了一种空域数据重排的后多普勒自适应处理方法。该方法将多普勒滤波后的空域数据重排为一行列数相近的矩阵,空域滤波器权系数也表示成可分离的形式,从而得到一双二次代价函数,利用循环迭代的思想求解权系数。实验表明该方法具有快速收敛,所需训练样本少的优点,尤其在大阵列、小样本条件下该方法抑制杂波的性能明显优于FA和EFA。     

Error Analysis of the Optimal Antenna Array Processors

The optimal weights of an antenna array processor, which maximizes the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the absence of errors, are computed using the noise-alone matrix inverse (NAMI) and the steering vector in the look direction or the signal-plus-noise matrix inverse (SPNMI) and the steering vector. In practice the estimated steering vector as well as the estimated optimal weights are corrupted by random errors. This paper has analyzed the effects of these errors on the performance of the NAMI processor and the SPNMI processor by deriving analytic expressions for the output signal power, output noise power, output SNR, and the array gain as a function of the error variance. The treatment is for a general array configuration and no assumption about a particular array geometry is made.     

阵列旋转对功率倒置算法性能的影响分析

针对卫星导航抗干扰中,功率倒置算法下导航信号载噪比受干扰来波方向的影响,通过理论推导和数值计算的方法研究了天线阵列旋转与功率倒置算法抗干扰性能的关系。分析结果表明:天线阵列旋转会使功率倒置算法下的阵列增益在最大值和最小值之间呈现连续的、周期性的变化。相比固定天线阵不变的载噪比,阵列旋转能够使信号在一段时间内获得更大的载噪比,对于四阵元Y型阵列,阵列旋转理论上对载噪比的最大提升程度可以达到14dB左右。仿真结果验证了理论推导的正确性。     

Low-Error Bearing Estimation in Shallow Water

The multipath effect due to sound propagation in shallow water causes bearing errors in horizontal line arrays for all angles different from broadside when conventional resolution methods like beamformer or maximum entropy method are used. Error-free bearing estimates can be achieved only by means of generalized power estimators which use a priori knowledge about the spatial channel statistics. This a priori knowledge is usually unknown. The method described makes use of a pilot source which transmits training signals in order to achieve an estimate for a suboptimum spatial signal covariance matrix which is used for field matching.     

Effects of finite weight resolution and calibration errors on theperformance of adaptive array antennas

Adaptive antennas are now used to increase the spectral efficiency in mobile telecommunication systems. A model of the received carrier-to-interference plus noise ratio (CINR) in the adaptive antenna beamformer output is derived, assuming that the weighting units are implemented in hardware, The finite resolution of weights and calibration is shown to reduce the CINR. When hardware weights are used, the phase or amplitude step size in the weights can be so large that it affects the maximum achievable CINR. It is shown how these errors makes the interfering signals “leak” through the beamformer and we show how the output CINR is dependent on power of the input signals. The derived model is extended to include the limited dynamic range of the receivers, by using a simulation model. The theoretical and simulated results are compared with measurements on an adaptive array antenna testbed receiver, designed for the GSM-1800 system. The theoretical model was used to find the performance limiting part in the testbed as the 1 dB resolution in the weight magnitude. Furthermore, the derived models are used in illustrative examples and can be used for system designers to balance the phase and magnitude resolution and the calibration requirements of future adaptive array antennas     

Multibaseline ATI-SAR for robust ocean surface velocity estimation

An open problem of along-track interferometry (ATI) for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensing of ocean surface currents is the need of ancillary wind information for inversion of Doppler centroid measurements, that have to be compensated for the propagation velocity of advancing and/or receding Bragg scatterers. We propose three classes of estimators which exploit multibaseline (MB) ATI acquisition and Doppler resolution for robust data inversion under different degrees of a priori information about the wind direction and the value of the characteristic Bragg frequency. Performance analysis and comparison with conventional ATI show that the proposed MB estimators can produce accurate velocity estimates in the absence of detailed ancillary data.     

Antenna array beam steering using time-varying weights

The author presents a new technique of steering an array antenna by introducing time-varying phase weights. It is shown that the technique is equivalent to placing a linear phase and linear frequency offset across the array when transmitting a linear frequency modulated (LFM) waveform. The technique reduces array dispersion and increases the operating bandwidth. An element level signal generator is presented as a possible way of implementing the time-varying weights. A possible array implementation is also shown.<>     

Results from a Four-Element Adaptive Antenna Experiment

Experimental results from a four-element, linear, half-wavelength spacing, adaptive-array antenna under the control of the least mean square (LMS) algorithm are presented. The array is found to be capable of nulling a 70-MHz signal to -35 dB below a desired signal over a 5-MHz bandwidth. The antenna processing gain is constant over a desired signal-to-jammer signal power ratio range from -20 dB to 5 dB. A sharp reduction in processing gain is observed for angular separations between jammer and desired signal of less than 10°. Antenna patterns taken with weights set in 300 iterations of the LMS algorithm show that the one strong, one weak jammer combination has a longer weight convergence time and reduced processing gain compared with a two strong jammers combination. Contours of constant desired signal-to-jammer signal power ratio, after adaptive antenna processing, reveal a complex shape for communication between air and ground due to the finite angular resolution of the adaptive antenna.     

A closed-form solution for moving source localization using LBI changing rate of phase difference only

Due to the deficiencies in the conventional multiple-receiver localization systems based on direction of arrival(DOA) such as system complexity of interferometer or array and amplitude/phase unbalance between multiple receiving channels and constraint on antenna configuration,a new radiated source localization method using the changing rate of phase difference(CRPD)measured by a long baseline interferometer(LBI) only is studied. To solve the strictly nonlinear problem, a two-stage closed-form solution is proposed. In the first stage, the DOA and its changing rate are estimated from the CRPD of each observer by the pseudolinear least square(PLS) method,and then in the second stage, the source position and velocity are found by another PLS minimization. The bias of the algorithm caused by the correlation between the measurement matrix and the noise in the second stage is analyzed. To reduce this bias, an instrumental variable(IV) method is derived. A weighted IV estimator is given in order to reduce the estimation variance. The proposed method does not need any initial guess and the computation is small. The Cramer–Rao lower bound(CRLB) and mean square error(MSE) are also analyzed. Simulation results show that the proposed method can be close to the CRLB with moderate Gaussian measurement noise.     

An effect of range-heterogeneous clutter on adaptive Dopplerfilters

The practical implementation of adaptive Doppler filters requires estimates of clutter parameters to determine the adaptive weights. A method of deriving the estimate via the sample matrix inversion (SMI) algorithm using multiple data snapshots from adjacent range cells is presented. For homogeneous clutter environments, the results of this technique asymptotically approach the optimum (a priori known covariance matrix) as the number of snapshots approaches infinity; this asymptotic behavior does not occur for heterogeneous clutter environments. An equation for the decrease in improvement factor is derived. To promote understanding, the simplified special case of narrowband clutter is considered in detail. In almost all cases, the loss is small     

基于FPGA的自适应阵列协方差矩阵特征分解的实现

卫星导航抗干扰的过程中,对空间信号波达方向估计、干扰个数检测、最优权矢量的求解直接影响着导航接收机的抗干扰性能,而协方差矩阵的特征分解是这些算法实现的核心部分。根据自适应阵列天线获得的协方差矩阵的特性,基于双边并行Jacobi算法,实现了基于FPGA的协方差矩阵特征值和特征向量的求解,并通过在信号波达方向估计的应用进行了验证。另外,在实现的过程中对直接调用CORDIC IP核的方式进行了精度误差分析,并用一种双精度浮点的方式进行修正,提高了矩阵特征分解FPGA的实现精度,为导航抗干扰接收机性能的提升提供了有效的工程基础。     

Multiple target angle tracking using sensor array outputs

The use of the output of an array of sensors to track multiple independently moving targets is reported. The output of each sensor in the array is the sum of signals received from each of the targets. The results of direction-of-arrival estimation by eigenvalue analysis are extended to derive a recursive procedure based on a matrix quadratic equation. The solution of this matrix quadratic equation is used to provide updated target positions. A linear approximation method for estimating the solution of the matrix equation is presented. The algorithm is demonstrated by the simulated tracking of two targets. The main advantage of the algorithm is that a closed-form solution for updating the target angle estimates has been obtained. Also, its application is straightforward, and the data association problem due to uncertainty in the origin of the measurements is avoided. However, it requires the inversion of an N×N as well as other linear operations, so that the computational burden becomes substantial as N becomes very large     

天线组阵中SUMPLE算法的合成相位漂移补偿

针对SUMPLE算法在低信噪比时存在的相位漂移问题,在分析权值估计误差引起的合成信号相位漂移现象的基础上,提出一种以固定时刻合成权值作为参考的补偿算法。该算法以收敛后某个固定时刻的合成权值作为参考,其他时刻的相位补偿值通过与该参考权值进行相关计算得到。从理论上分析了该算法的可行性,并进行仿真验证。理论分析与仿真结果表明,所给出的相位补偿方法能有效地消除合成信号的相位漂移现象,补偿后的合成信号相位中心稳定。     

An Adaptive Antenna for Rejection of Wideband Interference

A modification to the adaptive array under the directional constraint [1] is proposed to improve its performance of rejecting wideband interference. By analogy to the pattern synthesis of an antenna array which produces a flat null in its radiation pattern, an additional quantity that corresponds to the derivative of the pattern is generated and combined with the standard feedback quantity to control the weights of the array. This composite system is tested by computer simulation experiments and the following points are demonstrated in contrast to the conventional, simple system: 1) faster adaptation against wideband interference, 2) remarkable improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio of the output, i. e., very small fluctuation.     

一种基于协方差矩阵加权的阵元误差补偿STAP处理

机载多通道阵列雷达天线在工程实践中不可避免地存在各类阵元误差,所产生的通道失配问题会对空时二维自适应处理的性能造成大的影响。对存在阵元误差时的阵列信号模型进行了分析,提出了一种基于协方差矩阵加权（CMT）的阵元误差补偿空时自适应处理（STAP）方法,在工程应用中该加权矩阵可通过地面天线定标及校飞过程确定,通过对总干扰协方差矩阵估计的加权预处理,可将实际阵元误差对STAP性能的影响控制在测量误差的影响范围,最后通过仿真验证了算法的有效性。     

Reduced-rank STAP for high PRF radar

Due to the range ambiguity of high pulse-repetition frequency (HPRF) radars, echoes from far-range fold over near-range returns. This effect may cause low Doppler targets to compete with near-range strong clutter. Another consequence of the range ambiguity is that the sample support for estimating the array covariance matrix is reduced, leading to degraded performance. It is shown that space-time adaptive processing (STAP) techniques are required to reject the clutter in HPRF radar. Four STAP methods are studied in the context of the HPRF radar problem: low rank approximation sample matrix inversion (SMI), diagonally loaded SMI, eigencanceler, and element-space post-Doppler. These three methods are evaluated in typical HPRF radar scenarios and for various training conditions, including when the target is present in the training data     

Weight Jitter Phenomena in Adaptive Array Control Loops

An analysis of weight jitter in adaptive array control loops is presented. lt is shown that steady state weight jitter and statistical dependence between input signal and weight processes are related factors. A Markov characterization for the first-order adaptive array loop is presented and Fokker-Planck techniques are used to obtain the steady state probability density of the weight process for the case of a one-loop array. From this density the mean and the variance of the weight process are obtained and the dependence of these statistics upon loop and input signal parameters is explored.