Single Stage DOA-Frequency Representation of the Array Data with Source Reconstruction Capability

In this paper, a new signal processing framework is proposed, in which the array time samples are represented in DOA-frequency domain through a single stage problem. It is shown that concatenated array data is well represented in a $\mathbf{G}$ dictionary atoms space, where $\mathbf{G}$ columns correspond to pixels in the DOA-frequency image. We present two approaches for the $\mathbf{G}$ formation and compare the benefits and disadvantages of them. A mutual coherence guaranteed $\mathbf{G}$ manipulation technique is also proposed. Furthermore, unlike most of the existing methods, the proposed problem is reversible into the time domain, therefore, source recovery from the resulted DOA-frequency image is possible. The proposed representation in DOA-frequency domain can be simply transformed into a group sparse problem, in the case of non-multitone sources in a given bandwidth. Therefore, it can also be utilized as an effective wideband DOA estimator. In the simulation part, two scenarios of multitone sources with unknown frequency and DOA locations and non-multitone wideband sources with assumed frequency region are examined. In multitone scenario, sparse solvers yield more accurate DOA-frequency representation compared to some noncoherent approaches. At the latter scenario, the proposed method with group sparse solver outperforms some existing wideband DOA estimators in low SNR regime. In addition, sources' recovery simultaneous with DOA estimation shows significant improvement compared to the conventional delay and sum beamformer and without prerequisites required in sophisticated wideband beamformers

Gridless Quadrature Compressive Sampling with Interpolated Array Technique

Quadrature compressive sampling (QuadCS) is a sub-Nyquist sampling scheme for acquiring in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) components in radar. In this scheme, the received intermediate frequency (IF) signals are expressed as a linear combination of time-delayed and scaled replicas of the transmitted waveforms. For sparse IF signals on discrete grids of time-delay space, the QuadCS can efficiently reconstruct the I/Q components from sub-Nyquist samples. In practice, the signals are characterized by a set of unknown time-delay parameters in a continuous space. Then conventional sparse signal reconstruction will deteriorate the QuadCS reconstruction performance. This paper focuses on the reconstruction of the I/Q components with continuous delay parameters. A parametric spectrum-matched dictionary is defined, which sparsely describes the IF signals in the frequency domain by delay parameters and gain coefficients, and the QuadCS system is reexamined under the new dictionary. With the inherent structure of the QuadCS system, it is found that the estimation of delay parameters can be decoupled from that of sparse gain coefficients, yielding a beamspace direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation formulation with a time-varying beamforming matrix. Then an interpolated beamspace DOA method is developed to perform the DOA estimation. An optimal interpolated array is established and sufficient conditions to guarantee the successful estimation of the delay parameters are derived. With the estimated delays, the gain coefficients can be conveniently determined by solving a linear least-squares problem. Extensive simulations demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithm in reconstructing the sparse signals with continuous delay parameters.Comment: 34 pages, 11 figure

FDD Massive MIMO Channel Estimation with Arbitrary 2D-Array Geometry

This paper addresses the problem of downlink channel estimation in frequency-division duplexing (FDD) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The existing methods usually exploit hidden sparsity under a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) basis to estimate the cdownlink channel. However, there are at least two shortcomings of these DFT-based methods: 1) they are applicable to uniform linear arrays (ULAs) only, since the DFT basis requires a special structure of ULAs, and 2) they always suffer from a performance loss due to the leakage of energy over some DFT bins. To deal with the above shortcomings, we introduce an off-grid model for downlink channel sparse representation with arbitrary 2D-array antenna geometry, and propose an efficient sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) approach for the sparse channel recovery and off-grid refinement. The main idea of the proposed off-grid method is to consider the sampled grid points as adjustable parameters. Utilizing an in-exact block majorization-minimization (MM) algorithm, the grid points are refined iteratively to minimize the off-grid gap. Finally, we further extend the solution to uplink-aided channel estimation by exploiting the angular reciprocity between downlink and uplink channels, which brings enhanced recovery performance.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 201

A Unified Approach to Sparse Signal Processing

A unified view of sparse signal processing is presented in tutorial form by bringing together various fields. For each of these fields, various algorithms and techniques, which have been developed to leverage sparsity, are described succinctly. The common benefits of significant reduction in sampling rate and processing manipulations are revealed. The key applications of sparse signal processing are sampling, coding, spectral estimation, array processing, component analysis, and multipath channel estimation. In terms of reconstruction algorithms, linkages are made with random sampling, compressed sensing and rate of innovation. The redundancy introduced by channel coding in finite/real Galois fields is then related to sampling with similar reconstruction algorithms. The methods of Prony, Pisarenko, and MUSIC are next discussed for sparse frequency domain representations. Specifically, the relations of the approach of Prony to an annihilating filter and Error Locator Polynomials in coding are emphasized; the Pisarenko and MUSIC methods are further improvements of the Prony method. Such spectral estimation methods is then related to multi-source location and DOA estimation in array processing. The notions of sparse array beamforming and sparse sensor networks are also introduced. Sparsity in unobservable source signals is also shown to facilitate source separation in SCA; the algorithms developed in this area are also widely used in compressed sensing. Finally, the multipath channel estimation problem is shown to have a sparse formulation; algorithms similar to sampling and coding are used to estimate OFDM channels.Comment: 43 pages, 40 figures, 15 table

Sensor Array Design Through Submodular Optimization

We consider the problem of far-field sensing by means of a sensor array. Traditional array geometry design techniques are agnostic to prior information about the far-field scene. However, in many applications such priors are available and may be utilized to design more efficient array topologies. We formulate the problem of array geometry design with scene prior as one of finding a sampling configuration that enables efficient inference, which turns out to be a combinatorial optimization problem. While generic combinatorial optimization problems are NP-hard and resist efficient solvers, we show how for array design problems the theory of submodular optimization may be utilized to obtain efficient algorithms that are guaranteed to achieve solutions within a constant approximation factor from the optimum. We leverage the connection between array design problems and submodular optimization and port several results of interest. We demonstrate efficient methods for designing arrays with constraints on the sensing aperture, as well as arrays respecting combinatorial placement constraints. This novel connection between array design and submodularity suggests the possibility for utilizing other insights and techniques from the growing body of literature on submodular optimization in the field of array design

Compressed Sensing for Wireless Communications : Useful Tips and Tricks

As a paradigm to recover the sparse signal from a small set of linear measurements, compressed sensing (CS) has stimulated a great deal of interest in recent years. In order to apply the CS techniques to wireless communication systems, there are a number of things to know and also several issues to be considered. However, it is not easy to come up with simple and easy answers to the issues raised while carrying out research on CS. The main purpose of this paper is to provide essential knowledge and useful tips that wireless communication researchers need to know when designing CS-based wireless systems. First, we present an overview of the CS technique, including basic setup, sparse recovery algorithm, and performance guarantee. Then, we describe three distinct subproblems of CS, viz., sparse estimation, support identification, and sparse detection, with various wireless communication applications. We also address main issues encountered in the design of CS-based wireless communication systems. These include potentials and limitations of CS techniques, useful tips that one should be aware of, subtle points that one should pay attention to, and some prior knowledge to achieve better performance. Our hope is that this article will be a useful guide for wireless communication researchers and even non-experts to grasp the gist of CS techniques

FDD Massive MIMO via UL/DL Channel Covariance Extrapolation and Active Channel Sparsification

We propose a novel method for massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (massive MIMO) in Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) systems. Due to the large frequency separation between Uplink (UL) and Downlink (DL), in FDD systems channel reciprocity does not hold. Hence, in order to provide DL channel state information to the Base Station (BS), closed-loop DL channel probing and Channel State Information (CSI) feedback is needed. In massive MIMO this incurs typically a large training overhead. For example, in a typical configuration with M = 200 BS antennas and fading coherence block of T = 200 symbols, the resulting rate penalty factor due to the DL training overhead, given by max{0, 1 - M/T}, is close to 0. To reduce this overhead, we build upon the well-known fact that the Angular Scattering Function (ASF) of the user channels is invariant over frequency intervals whose size is small with respect to the carrier frequency (as in current FDD cellular standards). This allows to estimate the users' DL channel covariance matrix from UL pilots without additional overhead. Based on this covariance information, we propose a novel sparsifying precoder in order to maximize the rank of the effective sparsified channel matrix subject to the condition that each effective user channel has sparsity not larger than some desired DL pilot dimension T_{dl}, resulting in the DL training overhead factor max{0, 1 - T_{dl} / T} and CSI feedback cost of T_{dl} pilot measurements. The optimization of the sparsifying precoder is formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Program, that can be efficiently solved. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach with respect to concurrent state-of-the-art schemes based on compressed sensing or UL/DL dictionary learning.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures - Further simulation results and comparisons with the state-of-the-art techniques, compared to the previous versio

A Block Sparsity Based Estimator for mmWave Massive MIMO Channels with Beam Squint

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) millimeter wave (mmWave) communication is a key technology for next generation wireless networks. One of the consequences of utilizing a large number of antennas with an increased bandwidth is that array steering vectors vary among different subcarriers. Due to this effect, known as beam squint, the conventional channel model is no longer applicable for mmWave massive MIMO systems. In this paper, we study channel estimation under the resulting non-standard model. To that aim, we first analyze the beam squint effect from an array signal processing perspective, resulting in a model which sheds light on the angle-delay sparsity of mmWave transmission. We next design a compressive sensing based channel estimation algorithm which utilizes the shift-invariant block-sparsity of this channel model. The proposed algorithm jointly computes the off-grid angles, the off-grid delays, and the complex gains of the multi-path channel. We show that the newly proposed scheme reflects the mmWave channel more accurately and results in improved performance compared to traditional approaches. We then demonstrate how this approach can be applied to recover both the uplink as well as the downlink channel in frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, by exploiting the angle-delay reciprocity of mmWave channels

Analog to Digital Cognitive Radio: Sampling, Detection and Hardware

The proliferation of wireless communications has recently created a bottleneck in terms of spectrum availability. Motivated by the observation that the root of the spectrum scarcity is not a lack of resources but an inefficient managing that can be solved, dynamic opportunistic exploitation of spectral bands has been considered, under the name of Cognitive Radio (CR). This technology allows secondary users to access currently idle spectral bands by detecting and tracking the spectrum occupancy. The CR application revisits this traditional task with specific and severe requirements in terms of spectrum sensing and detection performance, real-time processing, robustness to noise and more. Unfortunately, conventional methods do not satisfy these demands for typical signals, that often have very high Nyquist rates. Recently, several sampling methods have been proposed that exploit signals' a priori known structure to sample them below the Nyquist rate. Here, we review some of these techniques and tie them to the task of spectrum sensing in the context of CR. We then show how issues related to spectrum sensing can be tackled in the sub-Nyquist regime. First, to cope with low signal to noise ratios, we propose to recover second-order statistics from the low rate samples, rather than the signal itself. In particular, we consider cyclostationary based detection, and investigate CR networks that perform collaborative spectrum sensing to overcome channel effects. To enhance the efficiency of the available spectral bands detection, we present joint spectrum sensing and direction of arrival estimation methods. Throughout this work, we highlight the relation between theoretical algorithms and their practical implementation. We show hardware simulations performed on a prototype we built, demonstrating the feasibility of sub-Nyquist spectrum sensing in the context of CR.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Signal Processing Magazin

OSE and Matrix Filtering for SISA

The expected value and covariance function of a product processor for a spatially uncorrelated white guassian process has been derived for known sparse geometries such as nested or coprime with uniform taper. When a non-uniform taper is applied, the expected value of the product processor becomes the convolution of the true spatial power spectral density and the spatial Fourier transform of the difference coarray. A windowed estimate of the true autocorrelation function can be obtained by taking the inverse Fourier transform of the output. By extending that function to an estimate of the sample covariance matrix, it can be used in subspace-based algorithms such as MUSIC or ESPRIT. These results are extended to colored processes and multidimensional arrays. Subspace-based algorithms make use of the eigenvectors of the sample covariance matrix or the singular vectors of the received array data. The subspaces spanned by the singular vectors or eigenvectors are perturbed away from the ensemble due to additive noise causing performance losses. This can be improved by using the optimal signal or noise subspace basis estimate instead. A statistically optimal estimate of the unperturbed subspace basis in terms of perturbed signal and orthogonal bases has been derived and is accurate up to the first-order terms in the additive noise matrix. A methodology to find these optimal estimates in sparse arrays that possess a shift-invariant structure is derived here and can be additionally interpolated to match the basis of a fully populated array with equal aperture. The second-order optimal approximation for the unperturbed subspace is derived. The results are applied to a uniform linear array (ULA) processing model for both full and sparse geometries. In the case of a fully sampled array, the first-order terms carry the bulk of information and an extension to second-order does little to reduce estimation error. However, for a sparse array, the performance is improved more clearly. The variance on DOA estimation using an optimal subspace basis estimate on shift-invariant arrays reaches the Cramer-Rao lower bound. However, unlike other sparse geometries such as nested or coprime arrays, SISAs are not able to estimate more sources than the number of sensors. Presented is the addition of spatial matrix filtering to reduce the rank of the input passed into the estimation algorithm. Matrix filters allow spatial frequencies within its pass band to remain nearly distortionless while simultaneously attenuating ambient noise in the stop band. The reduction in rank does not affect the arrays resolution capability or dimension of the coarray. Therefore we can enable a SISA to estimate more sources than the number of sensors. Derived here is a more generalized optimal subspace estimation algorithm designed to handle the correlation introduced by the matrix filtering pre-processor. By doing so, the SISA achieves unprecedented estimation performance for SNR regions typically considered unusable