MIMO Radar Target Localization and Performance Evaluation under SIRP Clutter

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar has become a thriving subject of research during the past decades. In the MIMO radar context, it is sometimes more accurate to model the radar clutter as a non-Gaussian process, more specifically, by using the spherically invariant random process (SIRP) model. In this paper, we focus on the estimation and performance analysis of the angular spacing between two targets for the MIMO radar under the SIRP clutter. First, we propose an iterative maximum likelihood as well as an iterative maximum a posteriori estimator, for the target's spacing parameter estimation in the SIRP clutter context. Then we derive and compare various Cram\'er-Rao-like bounds (CRLBs) for performance assessment. Finally, we address the problem of target resolvability by using the concept of angular resolution limit (ARL), and derive an analytical, closed-form expression of the ARL based on Smith's criterion, between two closely spaced targets in a MIMO radar context under SIRP clutter. For this aim we also obtain the non-matrix, closed-form expressions for each of the CRLBs. Finally, we provide numerical simulations to assess the performance of the proposed algorithms, the validity of the derived ARL expression, and to reveal the ARL's insightful properties.Comment: 34 pages, 12 figure

Neural Network-Based DOA Estimation in the Presence of Non-Gaussian Interference

This work addresses the problem of direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation in the presence of non-Gaussian, heavy-tailed, and spatially-colored interference. Conventionally, the interference is considered to be Gaussian-distributed and spatially white. However, in practice, this assumption is not guaranteed, which results in degraded DOA estimation performance. Maximum likelihood DOA estimation in the presence of non-Gaussian and spatially colored interference is computationally complex and not practical. Therefore, this work proposes a neural network (NN) based DOA estimation approach for spatial spectrum estimation in multi-source scenarios with a-priori unknown number of sources in the presence of non-Gaussian spatially-colored interference. The proposed approach utilizes a single NN instance for simultaneous source enumeration and DOA estimation. It is shown via simulations that the proposed approach significantly outperforms conventional and NN-based approaches in terms of probability of resolution, estimation accuracy, and source enumeration accuracy in conditions of low SIR, small sample support, and when the angular separation between the source DOAs and the spatially-colored interference is small.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic System

Iterative Marginal Maximum Likelihood DOD and DOA Estimation for MIMO Radar in the Presence of SIRP Clutter

The spherically invariant random process (SIRP) clutter model is commonly used in scenarios where the radar clutter cannot be correctly modeled as a Gaussian process. In this short communication, we devise a novel Maximum-Likelihood (ML)-based iterative estimator for direction-of-departure and direction-of-arrival estimation in the Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar context in the presence of SIRP clutter. The proposed estimator employs a stepwise numerical concentration approach w.r.t. the objective function related to the marginal likelihood of the observation data. Our estimator leads to superior performance, as our simulations show, w.r.t. to the existing likelihood based methods, namely, the conventional, the conditional and the joint likelihood based estimators, and w.r.t. the robust subspace decomposition based methods. Finally, interconnections and comparison between the Iterative Marginal ML Estimator (IMMLE), Iterative Joint ML Estimator (IJMLE) and Iterative Conditional ML Estimator (ICdMLE) are provided