A Wideband Direct Data Domain Genetic Algorithm Beamforming

In this paper, a wideband direct data-domain genetic algorithm beamforming is presented. Received wideband signals are decomposed to a set of narrow sub-bands using fast Fourier transform. Each sub-band is transformed to a reference frequency using the steering vector transformation. So, narrowband approaches could be used for any of these sub-bands. Hence, the direct data-domain genetic algorithm beamforming can be used to form a single ‘hybrid’ beam pattern with sufficiently deep nulls in order to separate and reconstruct frequency components of the signal of interest efficiently. The proposed approach avoids most of drawbacks of already-existing statistical and gradient-based approaches since formation of a covariance matrix is not needed, and a genetic algorithm is used to solve the beamforming problem

Space Time MUSIC: Consistent Signal Subspace Estimation for Wide-band Sensor Arrays

Wide-band Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation with sensor arrays is an essential task in sonar, radar, acoustics, biomedical and multimedia applications. Many state of the art wide-band DOA estimators coherently process frequency binned array outputs by approximate Maximum Likelihood, Weighted Subspace Fitting or focusing techniques. This paper shows that bin signals obtained by filter-bank approaches do not obey the finite rank narrow-band array model, because spectral leakage and the change of the array response with frequency within the bin create \emph{ghost sources} dependent on the particular realization of the source process. Therefore, existing DOA estimators based on binning cannot claim consistency even with the perfect knowledge of the array response. In this work, a more realistic array model with a finite length of the sensor impulse responses is assumed, which still has finite rank under a space-time formulation. It is shown that signal subspaces at arbitrary frequencies can be consistently recovered under mild conditions by applying MUSIC-type (ST-MUSIC) estimators to the dominant eigenvectors of the wide-band space-time sensor cross-correlation matrix. A novel Maximum Likelihood based ST-MUSIC subspace estimate is developed in order to recover consistency. The number of sources active at each frequency are estimated by Information Theoretic Criteria. The sample ST-MUSIC subspaces can be fed to any subspace fitting DOA estimator at single or multiple frequencies. Simulations confirm that the new technique clearly outperforms binning approaches at sufficiently high signal to noise ratio, when model mismatches exceed the noise floor.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. Accepted in a revised form by the IEEE Trans. on Signal Processing on 12 February 1918. @IEEE201

Multiple Signal Classification for Determining Direction of Arrival of Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum Signals

This research extends a MUSIC algorithm to determine DOA of FHSS signals. All incident FHSS signals have unknown DOA and use PSK. Conventional MUSIC algorithm involves multiple MUSIC estimation for all frequency bins. On the other hand, the extended development is meant to execute a single MUSIC algorithm of observations on multiple frequency bins or hops. The new extension shows better performance compared to the conventional MUSIC execution at different SNR levels. Both have the same power accumulation at the true angles of arrival. However, the new development has lower side lobes and hence helps avoid false detections. In addition, the new development has lower side lobes variance resulting in lower error of false detections compared to the normal execution. Simulation results show that the new extension is sensitive to the SNR values and number of samples taken at each frequency bin. However, it is less sensitive to the possible number of frequency hops or hop set and number of array sensors