Concatenated Sequences for Spread Spectrum Systems

Concatenated sequences are suggested and developed for use in spread spectrum (SS) systems. Special receiver realization is discussed and it is shown that the concatenated sequences offer great advantage in reducing the size of the matched filter correlators (MFC) in the SS receiver. Experimental systems have been built using concatenated sequences and their performance is reported here. It has been shown that a processing gain of 60 is obtainable with a 15 × 4 concatenated sequence which requires three tapped delay lines (TDL), two of length 15 and one of 4. Thus a total of only 34 delay units (with a nonlinear interface network, only 19 delay units) are required. Teleprinter signals can be transmitted over telephone channels using a bandwidth (BW) expansion of 60 with an input signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of only -5.1 dB, resulting in a character- error-rate of 1 in 103. Techniques have been developed to reduce the sidelobe levels in the aperiodic autocorrelation functions (ACF) of the pseudonoise (PN) codes. For 15 length and 7 length PN sequences, sidelobes are reduced by 9 dB and 9.4 dB, respectively, using transversal filters. Application of the SS systems to the problem of multiaccessing and antijamming are discussed.     

Gravity Sensors and the Principle of Equivalence

The tensor characteristics of the inertial fields created by acceleration and rotation, and the gravitational fields created by masses are discussed. Although it is sometimes thought that it is impossible to distinguish between gravitational and inertial effects because of Einstein's principle of equivalence, these effects do have different, detectable tensor characteristics. The principle of equivalence is only strictly applicable at a point, while the instruments to measure these tensor fields exist over a finite region. The inertial field created by acceleration is a uniform vector field and has no gradients, while the inertial field created by rotation has a uniform cylindrically symmetric tensor gradient but none of higher order. The gravitational field created by a mass is highly nonuniform with essentially no limit to the number of higher order gradients. These differences make it theoretically possible to independently measure gravitation, rotation, and acceleration effects; to do so, some form of differential force sensor with tensor response characteristics must be used. The standard technique is static, using differential accelerometers to sense the spatial gradient characteristics of the fields. A more promising technique is dynamic; by rotation of the differential sensor, the static spatial variations are transformed into temporal variations with various frequency components. It is then possible to distinguish between the various fields by frequency filtering.     

Leading Edge Estimation Errors

The leading edge estimator (LEE) of a pulse signal is defined as the instant at which a filtered version of the received noisy signal passes a preset threshold. A rigorous analysis for a rectangular pulse model of the signal results in an exact probability density function for the LEE, valid within the time interval of the leading edge of the filtered pulse. Possible occurrence of the threshold crossing outside of this interval is considered to be an anomalous estimate, since it leads to a gross error in comparison with the regular cases. It is found that the density function of the LEE error is asymmetrical and therefore biased, that the probability PA of anomalous estimation increases with the filter bandwidth, thus setting a well definable limit to the latter and that, for prespecified PA, the minimum bias and variance are proportional, respectively, to R-1 and R-2, minima being obtained by allowing for the largest bandwidth compatible with PA. On the other hand, for given bandwidth the variance decreases only as R-1. Here R is the signal-to-noise energy ratio. Results are presented in form of parameterized graphs.     

Cross Sections and Radar Equation for Nonlinear Scatterers

The nonlinear system concepts of nonlinear transfer functions are extended to nonlinear cross sections which may be used to quantitatively describe the characteristics of a nonlinear scatter. The concept of nonlinear cross sections is used to generalize the radar equation for nonlinear scattering objects.     

Adaptive False Alarmrm Regulation in Double Threshold Radar Detection

In practical situations the false alarm probability in double threshold radar detection, sometimes known as binary integration with sliding window detection, is dependent on the nonstationarity and azimuthal correlation of the clutter which is present. Control of the false alarm probability can be achieved, to a certain extent, by the adjustment of the second threshold in the detection process. In this study two adaptive control techniques which are based on the statistical characteristics of the data are compared. Comparing the results for a technique based on first-order statistics with one based on second-order statistics, it is shown that the second-order, or correlation sensitive, technique can give a reduction of 30 to 45 percent in the false alarm probability with no corresponding loss in the detection probability. An interesting aspect of the results is the fact that the effects of the size of the sample area and the bias in the correlation estimator are clearly evident.     

Susceptibility of DS/FH,M, Binary DPSK to Partial and Full Band Barrage Jamming

Spread spectrum signaling schemes have been proposed to counter unfriendly, electrical jamming threats. In order to establish their effectiveness, such schemes must be analyzed. This work takes a step in this direction by developing the susceptibility equation, or equivalently, the probability of error, of a direct sequence/frequency hopped (DS/FH), binary differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) system when subjected to a barrage jamming signal. Specific system models are established for the receiving system as well as for the jamming signal and the spread spectrum techniques. Both partial and full band jamming strategies are considered. Graphical results are presented with the conclusions summarizing the spread spectrum effectiveness and the deficiencies of the FH processing gain definition.     

Radar Performance Review in Clear and Jamming Environments

The performance of electronically scanned radar systems is evaluated for clear and barrage jamming environments. Radar figures of merit in jamming are derived for search and track modes and are directly related to antenna pattern relative sidelobe levels. A random sidelobe model is analyzed with various numbers of independent jammers. Probability distributions of detection probability are derived to determine detection performance versus average jamming level and number of jammers.     

Mismatched Filtering of Sonar Signals

A replica correlator (matched filter) is an optimum processor for a receiver employing a pulse of continuous wave (CW) signal in a white Gaussian noise background. In an active sonar, however, when the target of interest has low Doppler shift and is embedded in a high reverberation background, this is not so. High sidelobes of the correlator frequency response pass a significant portion of the signal contained in the mainlobe of the reverberation spectrum. In order to reduce the sidelobes of the correlator output spectrum and at the same time keep the increase in its 3 dB bandwidth to a small amount, we propose lengthening of the replica of the transmitted signal and weighting it by a Kaiser window. It is demonstrated that by extending the weighted replica by 50 percent compared with the transmitted signal, it is possible to reduce the sidelobe levels to at least 40 dB below the mainlobe peak, with the concomitant increase of the 3 dB band-width by less than 5 percent. The degradation in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performance for such a ?mismatched? filter receiver with respect to the matched filter is less than 1.5 dB.     

Current Injected Equivalent Circuit Approach to Modeling Switching DC-DC Converters

A new current injected equivalent circuit approach (CIECA) to modeling switching dc-dc converter power stages is developed, which starts with the current injected approach and results in either a set of equations which completely describe input and out-put properties or an equivalent linear circuit model valid at small signal, low frequency levels. This approach to modeling switching dc-dc converter power stages has the merits but not the demerits of both the electronic equivalent circuit state space average approach and the current injected control type approach, namely, 1) the modeling is very clear and is simple whether the converter operates in continuous or discontinuous inductor conduction modes, 2) the modeling results in an equivalent circuit which is very close to the actual converter, and 3) the equivalent circuit can be used directly in the computer for theoretical predictions like SPICE, etc.     

Study of rapid variability in Cygnus X-1

The EXOSAT Medium Energy instrument has been used with the new HER6 mode to study the rapid variability of Cygnus X-1. It was found that the fluctuations in the higher energy band (5–14 keV) lagged behind those in the lower band (2–5 keV) by about 6 milliseconds. This confirms predictions of the inverse Compton model and gives an upper limit to the scale-size of the hot gas clouds.