Synthetic-Aperture Radar Based on Nonsinusoidal Functions: IX ?Array Beam Forming

For sinusoidal waves with bandwidth zero, one obtains the classical formula ? = ? ?/ L = ?c/fL for the resolution angle of a sensor array, where L is the length of the array, ? the wavelength, f the frequency, and c the phase velocity of the wave, while ? is a constant whose value is usually chosen to be 1. Waves with the time variation of a rectangular pulse of duration ?T yield the resolution angle e = 2?cf?P/PN, where P/PN is the signal-to-noise ratio and ?f = 1/2?T the nominal bandwidth of the pulse; the same result holds for coded pulse sequences, such as Barker codes or complementary codes, if the main lobe of their auto-correlation function has the shape of a triangle with rise time ?T. Hence, the resolution angle e can be reduced by increasing the signal power, as well as by increasing the array length L or the bandwidth ?f. For sinusoidal waves, an increase of the signal power brings no reduction of the resolution angle. The trade between signal power and frequency bandwidth is of interest whenever the attenuation increases rapidly with frequency, e.g., in high-resolution all-weather radar or in underwater acoustic beam forming.     

超宽带阵列天线的接收波束形成研究

针对超宽带接收波束形成问题,提出了一种基于延迟线(tapped delay line)网络结构阵列信号处理方法,应用这种方法修正各路信号,最后对齐信号合成输出。详细分析了基于延迟线的数字波束形成原理,研究了该方法对空间信号的接收性能,并通过仿真验证了这种方法的可行性。分析了阵列天线参数的选取及方向图出现栅瓣的情况。这种方法处理阵列信号简单实用,易于工程实现。     

基于传声器阵列超增益波束形成的语音增强--频域方法

提出了一种在频域实现的基于传声器阵列超增益波束形成的语音增强方法。该方法利用小孔径线列阵端射方向具有超增益的特性,针对均匀噪声场,设计出相应的超增益权,形成超增益波束。基于超增益波束形成的输出相对常规处理,可大幅度提高信噪比。仿真了间距为0.05m的5元均匀线性传声器阵列接收到的端射方向带噪线性调频信号和语音信号,并进行超增益处理,获得12dB左右的阵增益,从而表明超增益传声器阵列具有优越的性能。     

Simple and Efficient Nonparametric Method for Estimating the Number of Signals Without Eigendecomposition

Inspired by the computational simplicity and numerical stability of QR decomposition, a nonparametric method for estimating the number of signals without eigendecomposition (MENSE) is proposed for the coherent narrowband signals impinging on a uniform linear array (ULA). By exploiting the array geometry and its shift invariance property to decorrelate the coherency of signals through subarray averaging, the number of signals is revealed in the rank of the QR upper-trapezoidal factor of the autoproduct of a combined Hankel matrix formed from the cross correlations between some sensor data. Since the infection of additive noise is defused, signal detection capability is improved. A new detection criterion is then formulated in terms of the row elements of the QR upper-triangular factor when finite array data are available, and the number of signals is determined as a value of the running index for which this ratio criterion is maximized, where the QR decomposition with column pivoting is also used to improve detection performance. The statistical analysis clarifies that the MENSE detection criterion is asymptotically consistent. Furthermore, the proposed MENSE algorithm is robust against the array uncertainties including sensor gain and phase errors and mutual coupling and against the deviations from the spatial homogeneity of noise model. The effectiveness of the MENSE is verified through numerical examples, and the simulation results show that the MENSE is superior in detecting closely spaced signals with a small number of snapshots and/or at relatively low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)     

PN code acquisition using smart antenna for spread-spectrum wireless communications. I

The smart antenna (a blind adaptive antenna array) has brought much attention to its ability to improve the future code-division multiple-access (CDMA) wireless communications systems. However, Adachi et al. (1998), employed only one out of M elements that are in a smart antenna array during the pseudonoise (PN) code acquisition process due to the difficulty in obtaining the weight coefficients of the smart antenna and PN code acquisition jointly and adaptively. Yet, as the PN code is acquired, all M elements are used by Adachi et al. to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at a reverse link. We propose an efficient PN code acquisition scheme where all elements are employed during PN code acquisition. Also, we show that by using all elements, the PN code acquisition time can be shortened by at least 40% for a given signal-to-noise ratio and M=5, compared to the single element case. Furthermore, the power of a random access user signal in the reverse link can be lowered at least 3 dB. The additional computational load and complexity to use the proposed PN code acquisition are insignificant.     

Considerations for SAR image quantification unique to orbitalsystems

A discussion is presented of quantitative expressions required for the response of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to both point and distributed scatterers for purposes such as calibration and polarimetry. Image gains depend on the viewing geometry, which is unlike the flat Earth case, which often is assumed to apply in an orbital geometry. Image signal-to-noise ratio is dependent on footprint velocity, but the mean clutter-to-noise ratio for distributed scatterers is dependent on spacecraft velocity. When imagery of a distributed scene observed by an orbital SAR is to be calibrated by comparison to the impulse response of a reference point scatterer, for example, the velocity ratio enters the expression for peak power, but does not enter when an integral is used over the impulse response. The author also looks at the processing gain resulting from overlapping image pixels in azimuth through sampling of the pulse repetition frequency     

Calculation of the signal-to-noise ratio for simple surface coilsand arrays of coils [magnetic resonance imaging]

Describes a new method to calculate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of MR signals obtained from single receiver coils and arrays of receiver coils. The coils are assumed to be placed on the surface of a conducting half-space and the SNR is sample-noise dominated. While in conventional methods line integrals over the electric currents in the coils are chosen to calculate the electric and magnetic fields, this new method uses surface integrals over magnetic dipoles covering the area enclosed by the antenna to derive these fields. Using this method, the SNR for simple circular and square coils was analytically calculated. The calculations show that the theoretical difference in SNR between circular and square antennas is very low. Furthermore, based on the new method, a derivation of the ultimate gain in SNR for arrays of surface coils is presented. The SNR of such an array approaches a limit even if the total number of coils is increased to infinity. This ultimate SNR of a coil array is 35.8% above that of a single circular-shaped, size-optimized and linear polarized coil     

Use of antenna nulling with frequency-hopping against the followerjammer

Antenna nulling is an effective ECCM (electronic counter countermeasures) asset that can be put in use with other ECCM techniques to obtain additional processing gain. Two antenna nulling schemes that can be used with frequency hopping to reduce the follower jammer threat are described. One of the schemes is only effective with uncorrelated signals. The second scheme is designed for coping with correlated jamming. Both schemes capitalize on the arrival time differences of the desired signal and the interference to isolate the interference for cancellation. The fast converging sample matrix inversion algorithm is considered in both schemes for improved effectiveness. The performance of the antenna nulling schemes, described in terms of the array output-signal-to-interference and noise ratio (OSINR), is evaluated by computer simulation. The OSINR of the array at a single frequency in the hop-set is presented for a range of desired signal-to-noise and jammer-to-noise ratios. The processing gain offered by the antenna nulling system was found to increase with increasing desired signal-to-noise ratio     

相干宽带线性调频信号的波达方向估计新方法

提出了一种相干宽带线性调频(LFM)信号的波达方向(DOA)估计新方法。该方法利用LFM信号在分数阶Fourier域上的解线调特性,构造出新的解线调域阵列数据模型,然后结合传统的矩阵重构解相干以及MUSIC算法实现相干LFM信号的DOA估计。若同时存在多组相干LFM信号入射,则首先在不同的能量聚集域上将各信号组分离,然后逐一进行各组内相干信号的DOA估计。该方法充分地挖掘了观测信号所包含的时频信息,增加了可检测的DOA数目,提高了分辨性能和抗噪声性能。此外,该方法无冗余阵元与孔径损失,且适用于任意流型阵列。仿真结果显示,在DOA估计的均方根误差(RMSE)相同时,与传统方法相比,本方法可获得8dB左右的信噪比增益。     

Performance of sequential estimation for direct sequence spread spectrum code acquisition

The Sequential Estimation (SE) technique introduced by Ward was designed for the acquisition of pseudo-noise (PN) signals. It proves to be an effective model in medium SNRs as long as inverted PN sequences are not encountered. Recognizing that negative data bits invert PN sequences in spread spectrum transmissions, Chiu and Lee developed an Improved Sequential Estimator (ISE) that processes both types of sequences. The ISE design, however, erroneously despreads the incoming signal by inverting it during negative bit acquisitions. In some applications, this could be a problem, hence a Dual Correlating Sequential Estimator (DCSE) is proposed in this paper. The DCSE detects modulation errors by gathering correlation measurements from resident SE and ISE subsystems and corrects for them with an inverting mechanism. Key performance parameters such as mean timing and the variance of acquisition for the sequential estimator designs are derived via the generalized signal flow graph method and verified through simulation. In an additive White Gaussian noise (AWGN) environment, the DCSE design is shown to outperform the SE for every tested signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).Abbreviations SE sequential estimation - PN pseudo-noise - ISE improved sequential estimator - DCSE dual correlating sequential estimator - AWGN additive white gaussian noise - SNR signal-to-noise ratio     

Improved Signal-to-Noise Ratio in Neurophysiology

A circuit which has low gain for small signals and high gain for larger signals and which improves the signal-to-noise ratio of nerve impulse sequences is described.     

Macrocell multiple-input multiple-output system analysis

We develop a semi-deterministic semi-stochastic channel model for the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system under the macrocell environment with local-to-mobile and local-to-base scatterers. We show that employing closely-spaced antennas (e.g., phased array) at the base station is capable of achieving diversity via the local-to-base scatterers, which avoids impractical large aperture requirement for the spatial diversity at the base station. We evaluate the system performance in terms of ergodic capacity, average pairwise error probability (PEP), and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); derive closed-form expressions for lower and upper bounds on the capacity and PEP; and show that the capacity, multiplexing and diversity gains are limited by the number of multipaths around the base station. The base-station array affects the lower bound on the capacity and the upper bound on the error probability through the same metric; thus, optimal design of the base station array based on this metric will optimize the two different information theoretic measures simultaneously. The fading correlation matrix also appears in the two bounds in the same form. To improve the performance of the macrocell MIMO system, we propose using artificial scatterers and discuss optimal design issues. Numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy of our analytical results and tightness of performance bounds.     

Beam Forming with Nonsinusoidal Coded Waveforms

The principle of beam forming based on a line array of sensors for nonsinusoidal signals with rectangular time variations is advanced to include beam forming of coded nonsinusoidal signals. The energy patterns of coded waveforms using complementary codes have a narrow main beam for small angles of incidence, a large number of sidelobes forming minor beams for large angles of incidence, and a constant value of 1/N, where Nis the number of sensors in the line array. Arrays with a large number of sensors N ? 64 have array gains that reduce the large amplitudes of the sidelobes significantly, eliminate the sidelobes with small amplitude, and decrease the final value to 1/N. The resolution angle e can be reduced by increasing the array length L or by increasing the bandwidth ?f = 1/2T, where T is the nominal pulse duration of the coded waveform.     

Maximum likelihood signal estimation for polarization sensitivearrays

The authors consider the problem of separating and estimating the waveforms of superimposed signals received by a polarization-sensitive array. Signal estimation is accomplished by a two-step maximum likelihood procedure: (i) The directions of arrival and polarization parameters of all the signals are estimated. (ii) The estimated signal is obtained as a linear combination of the array outputs, with weights which are computed from the estimated direction/polarization parameters. The objective of this study is to analyze the quality of the estimated signal in terms of the output signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) and output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Closed-form expressions are derived for the output SIR and SNR of a general diversely polarized array. By evaluating these expressions for selected test cases it is shown that polarization-sensitive arrays can provide significantly higher output SIR and SNR than uniformly polarized arrays. The performance improvement is especially significant for closed spaced sources with sufficiently different polarization characteristics     

TDL结构下改进的SRV宽带抗干扰算法

针对导航信号宽带抗干扰问题，传统的宽带抗干扰技术通常将宽带阵列信号处理成若干个窄带信号，但是宽带抗干扰技术却不能简单的处理为多个窄带抗干扰技术。本文提出了一种基于抽头延迟线（TDL）结构的改进空间响应偏差（SRV）因子的线性约束最小方差（LCMV）算法，此算法在空时联合处理宽带阵列信号的基础上，通过增加SRV约束改善阵列响应的频率不变性，并结合线性约束最小方差的准则，通过Frost梯度算法求取权值，对干扰信号进行抑制。仿真结果表明本文算法能够在干扰方向产生较深的零陷，并保留有用信号，稳健性好，输出信噪比较小，且收敛速度快，与传统的宽带抗干扰算法相比较具有明显的优越性。      

Effects of model errors on waveform estimation using the MUSICalgorithm

Sensor arrays are frequently used to separate and reconstruct superimposed signals arriving from different directions. The paper studies the effect of model errors, i.e., differences between the assumed and actual array response, on the quality of the reconstructed signals. Model errors are the limiting factor of array performance when the observation time is sufficiently long. The authors analyze a signal estimation technique which is based on the MUSIC algorithm. Formulas are derived for the signal-to-interference and signal-to-noise ratios as function of the model errors. By evaluating these formulas for selected test cases they gain some insights into the sensitivity of the signal estimation problem to model uncertainty     

光学波束形成技术对超宽带信号的传输特性分析

光学波束形成是一种在光学域内对来自阵列天线的射频信号进行加权和滤波而获得处理增益的新方法,具有大瞬时带宽、指向与频率无关等优点.对光学波束形成的原理进行了扼要阐述,并针对超宽带信号经过波束形成网络后的信息失真问题,对比分析了光学波束形成与Buttler矩阵等移相网络的传输特性,结果证实光学多波束能够在获得高处理增益的同时更好地保持信号原有的时频域特征.     

分布式MIMO数字阵列雷达阵元优化配置

为了合理分配相参增益和空间分集增益在分布式多输入多输出(MIMO)数字阵列雷达系统中的比重,研究了其阵元的优化配置问题。首先,根据MIMO雷达信号模型将阵元配置问题转化为目标散射系数矩阵的分块划分问题;然后,依据子块内信号相参处理,子块间信号非相参处理的方式推导了似然比检测器;最后,分别从检测概率最大、探测距离最远和总的阵元数最少三个方面给出了阵元优化配置的表达式并进行了仿真分析。研究结果表明:应首先利用相参增益将回波信噪比提高到一定值后才能利用空间分集增益;分置接收天线比分置发射天线牺牲的相参增益少;当检测概率大于0.8时,分置两个收发共用的相控阵天线可使系统阵元总数最少,否则无需天线分置。     

Optimal Training Signals for MIMO OFDM Channel Estimation in the Presence of Frequency Offset and Phase Noise

We develop robust mean-square error (MSE)-optimal training signal designs for multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing channel estimation with frequency offset and phase noise (PN), and present analytical and simulation results for the frequency-offset and PN effects on channel estimation. The proposed designs are more advantageous for moderate-to-high values of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), residual frequency offset, and PN level. At SNR = 10 dB, the normalized MSE reductions of our proposed training signals at normalized frequency offset$vert vvert=0.1,0.5$are about 9 and 19 dB, respectively, for one transmit antenna, and 6 and 11 dB for two transmit antennas.