Identification of Parametric Underspread Linear Systems and Super-Resolution Radar

Identification of time-varying linear systems, which introduce both time-shifts (delays) and frequency-shifts (Doppler-shifts), is a central task in many engineering applications. This paper studies the problem of identification of underspread linear systems (ULSs), whose responses lie within a unit-area region in the delay Doppler space, by probing them with a known input signal. It is shown that sufficiently-underspread parametric linear systems, described by a finite set of delays and Doppler-shifts, are identifiable from a single observation as long as the time bandwidth product of the input signal is proportional to the square of the total number of delay Doppler pairs in the system. In addition, an algorithm is developed that enables identification of parametric ULSs from an input train of pulses in polynomial time by exploiting recent results on sub-Nyquist sampling for time delay estimation and classical results on recovery of frequencies from a sum of complex exponentials. Finally, application of these results to super-resolution target detection using radar is discussed. Specifically, it is shown that the proposed procedure allows to distinguish between multiple targets with very close proximity in the delay Doppler space, resulting in a resolution that substantially exceeds that of standard matched-filtering based techniques without introducing leakage effects inherent in recently proposed compressed sensing-based radar methods.Comment: Revised version of a journal paper submitted to IEEE Trans. Signal Processing: 30 pages, 17 figure

Sparse Signal Processing Concepts for Efficient 5G System Design

As it becomes increasingly apparent that 4G will not be able to meet the emerging demands of future mobile communication systems, the question what could make up a 5G system, what are the crucial challenges and what are the key drivers is part of intensive, ongoing discussions. Partly due to the advent of compressive sensing, methods that can optimally exploit sparsity in signals have received tremendous attention in recent years. In this paper we will describe a variety of scenarios in which signal sparsity arises naturally in 5G wireless systems. Signal sparsity and the associated rich collection of tools and algorithms will thus be a viable source for innovation in 5G wireless system design. We will discribe applications of this sparse signal processing paradigm in MIMO random access, cloud radio access networks, compressive channel-source network coding, and embedded security. We will also emphasize important open problem that may arise in 5G system design, for which sparsity will potentially play a key role in their solution.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in IEEE Acces

Time Delay Estimation from Low Rate Samples: A Union of Subspaces Approach

Time delay estimation arises in many applications in which a multipath medium has to be identified from pulses transmitted through the channel. Various approaches have been proposed in the literature to identify time delays introduced by multipath environments. However, these methods either operate on the analog received signal, or require high sampling rates in order to achieve reasonable time resolution. In this paper, our goal is to develop a unified approach to time delay estimation from low rate samples of the output of a multipath channel. Our methods result in perfect recovery of the multipath delays from samples of the channel output at the lowest possible rate, even in the presence of overlapping transmitted pulses. This rate depends only on the number of multipath components and the transmission rate, but not on the bandwidth of the probing signal. In addition, our development allows for a variety of different sampling methods. By properly manipulating the low-rate samples, we show that the time delays can be recovered using the well-known ESPRIT algorithm. Combining results from sampling theory with those obtained in the context of direction of arrival estimation methods, we develop necessary and sufficient conditions on the transmitted pulse and the sampling functions in order to ensure perfect recovery of the channel parameters at the minimal possible rate. Our results can be viewed in a broader context, as a sampling theorem for analog signals defined over an infinite union of subspaces