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

Inter-sensor propagation delay estimation using sources of opportunity

Propagation delays are intensively used for Structural Health Monitoring or Sensor Network Localization. In this paper, we study the performances of acoustic propagation delay estimation between two sensors, using sources of opportunity only. Such sources are defined as being uncontrolled by the user (activation time, location, spectral content in time and space), thus preventing the direct estimation with classical active approaches, such as TDOA, RSSI and AOA. Observation models are extended from the literature to account for the spectral characteristics of the sources in this passive context and we show how time-filtered sources of opportunity impact the retrieval of the propagation delay between two sensors. A geometrical analogy is then proposed that leads to a lower bound on the variance of the propagation delay estimation that accounts for both the temporal and the spatial properties of the sources field

Analysis of Channel Measurements Using a Very Large Antenna Array

Accurate wireless channel models are crucial to simulate the effect of radio wave propagation in a channel on wireless communication systems. By calculating physical processing effects that signal undergoes while traveling from transmitter to the receiver, channel models help to analyze performance of wireless systems. State of the art channel model such as WINNER and COST 2100 are able to model the characteristics of conventional MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) systems (where moderate number of antennas is used at the two sides of the link) with sufficient accuracy. However, model extensions are needed for the current models in order to be able to capture new propagation characteristics result from having massive number of antenna elements at one or both ends of the communication link. In this thesis work, a measurement campaign is performed using very large antenna array (about 7.5m long) in order to study key propagation characteristics for massive MIMO. The channel measurements are performed using two frequency bands (2.6 GHz and 5.1 GHz), vertical and horizontal antenna polarizations, directional and omni-directional antennas. Effect of aforementioned setup parameters on cluster delay and angle spreads, power slope and shadowing, number of clusters and their observation lengths are studied in this work. Also correlation among estimated cluster parameters is presented. It was observed, that antenna polarization does not have significant effect on estimated cluster parameters. On the other hand, some estimated parameters like delay and angle spread, shadowing achieve higher values using 2.6 GHz band. Impact of antenna directivity was not very significant. Results of this thesis work are important while implementing extension for cluster-based COST 2100 channel model for massive MIMO case

Adaptive Signal Processing Techniques and Realistic Propagation Modeling for Multiantenna Vital Sign Estimation

Tämän työn keskeisimpänä tavoitteena on ihmisen elintoimintojen tarkkailu ja estimointi käyttäen radiotaajuisia mittauksia ja adaptiivisia signaalinkäsittelymenetelmiä monen vastaanottimen kantoaaltotutkalla. Työssä esitellään erilaisia adaptiivisia menetelmiä, joiden avulla hengityksen ja sydämen värähtelyn aiheuttamaa micro-Doppler vaihemodulaatiota sisältävät eri vastaanottimien signaalit voidaan yhdistää. Työssä johdetaan lisäksi realistinen malli radiosignaalien etenemiselle ja heijastushäviöille, jota käytettiin moniantennitutkan simuloinnissa esiteltyjen menetelmien vertailemiseksi. Saatujen tulosten perusteella voidaan osoittaa, että adaptiiviset menetelmät parantavat langattoman elintoimintojen estimoinnin luotettavuutta, ja mahdollistavat monitoroinnin myös pienillä signaali-kohinasuhteen arvoilla.This thesis addresses the problem of vital sign estimation through the use of adaptive signal enhancement techniques with multiantenna continuous wave radar. The use of different adaptive processing techniques is proposed in a novel approach to combine signals from multiple receivers carrying the information of the cardiopulmonary micro-Doppler effect caused by breathing and heartbeat. The results are based on extensive simulations using a realistic signal propagation model derived in the thesis. It is shown that these techniques provide a significant increase in vital sign rate estimation accuracy, and enable monitoring at lower SNR conditions

A novel deconvolution beamforming algorithm for virtual phased arrays

Beamforming techniques using phased microphone arrays are one of the most common tools for localizing and quantifying noise sources. However, the use of such devices can result in a series of well-known disadvantages regarding, for instance, their very high cost or transducer mismatch. Virtual Phased Arrays (VPAs) have been proposed as an alternative solution to prevent these difficulties provided the sound field is time stationary. Several frequency domain beamforming techniques can be adapted to only use the relative phase between a fixed and a moving transducer. Therefore the results traditionally obtained using large arrays can be emulated by applying beamforming algorithms to data acquired from only two sensors. This paper presents a novel beamforming algorithm which uses a deconvolution approach to strongly reduce the presence of side lobes. A series of synthetic noise sources with negative source strength are introduced in order to maximize the dynamic range of the beamforming deconvolved map. This iterative sidelobe cleaner algorithm (ISCA) does not require the of use of the covariance matrix of the array, hence it can also be applied to a VPA. The performance of ISCA is compared throughout several simulations with conventional deconvolution algorithms such as DAMAS and NNLS. The results support the robustness and accuracy of the proposed approach, providing clear localization maps in all the conditions evaluated