Adaptive array processing for multiple microphone hearing aids

Also issued as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1989.Includes bibliographical references.Supported in part by the National Institutes of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health. RO1-NS21322Patrick M. Peterson

A Study into Speech Enhancement Techniques in Adverse Environment

This dissertation developed speech enhancement techniques that improve the speech quality in applications such as mobile communications, teleconferencing and smart loudspeakers. For these applications it is necessary to suppress noise and reverberation. Thus the contribution in this dissertation is twofold: single channel speech enhancement system which exploits the temporal and spectral diversity of the received microphone signal for noise suppression and multi-channel speech enhancement method with the ability to employ spatial diversity to reduce reverberation

Radio frequency interference detection and mitigation techniques for navigation and Earth observation

Radio-Frequency Interference (RFI) signals are undesired signals that degrade or disrupt the performance of a wireless receiver. RFI signals can be troublesome for any receiver, but they are especially threatening for applications that use very low power signals. This is the case of applications that rely on the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), or passive microwave remote sensing applications such as Microwave Radiometry (MWR) and GNSS-Reflectometry (GNSS-R). In order to solve the problem of RFI, RFI-countermeasures are under development. This PhD thesis is devoted to the design, implementation and test of innovative RFI-countermeasures in the fields of MWR and GNSS. In the part devoted to RFI-countermeasures for MWR applications, first, this PhD thesis completes the development of the MERITXELL instrument. The MERITXELL is a multi-frequency total-power radiometer conceived to be an outstanding platform to perform detection, characterization, and localization of RFI signals at the most common MWR imaging bands up to 92 GHz. Moreover, a novel RFI mitigation technique is proposed for MWR: the Multiresolution Fourier Transform (MFT). An assessment of the performance of the MFT has been carried out by comparison with other time-frequency mitigation techniques. According to the results, the MFT technique is a good trade-off solution among all other techniques since it can mitigate efficiently all kinds of RFI signals under evaluation. In the part devoted to RFI-countermeasures for GNSS and GNSS-R applications, first, a system for RFI detection and localization at GNSS bands is proposed. This system is able to detect RFI signals at the L1 band with a sensitivity of -108 dBm at full-band, and of -135 dBm for continuous wave and chirp-like signals when using the averaged spectrum technique. Besides, the Generalized Spectral Separation Coefficient (GSSC) is proposed as a figure of merit to evaluate the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) degradation in the Delay-Doppler Maps (DDMs) due to the external RFI effect. Furthermore, the FENIX system has been conceived as an innovative system for RFI detection and mitigation and anti-jamming for GNSS and GNSS-R applications. FENIX uses the MFT blanking as a pre-correlation excision tool to perform the mitigation. In addition, FENIX has been designed to be cross-GNSS compatible and RFI-independent. The principles of operation of the MFT blanking algorithm are assessed and compared with other techniques for GNSS signals. Its performance as a mitigation tool is proven using GNSS-R data samples from a real airborne campaign. After that, the main building blocks of the patented architecture of FENIX have been described. The FENIX architecture has been implemented in three real-time prototypes. Moreover, a simulator named FENIX-Sim allows for testing its performance under different jamming scenarios. The real-time performance of FENIX prototype has been tested using different setups. First, a customized VNA has been built in order to measure the transfer function of FENIX in the presence of several representative RFI/jamming signals. The results show how the power transfer function adapts itself to mitigate the RFI/jamming signal. Moreover, several real-time tests with GNSS receivers have been performed using GPS L1 C/A, GPS L2C, and Galileo E1OS. The results show that FENIX provides an extra resilience against RFI and jamming signals up to 30 dB. Furthermore, FENIX is tested using a real GNSS timing setup. Under nominal conditions, when no RFI/jamming signal is present, a small additional jitter on the order of 2-4 ns is introduced in the system. Besides, a maximum bias of 45 ns has been measured under strong jamming conditions (-30 dBm), which is acceptable for current timing systems requiring accuracy levels of 100 ns. Finally, the design of a backup system for GNSS in tracking applications that require high reliability against RFI and jamming attacks is proposed.Les interferències de radiofreqüència (RFI) són senyals no desitjades que degraden o interrompen el funcionament dels receptors sense fils. Les RFI poden suposar un problema per qualsevol receptor, però són especialment amenaçadores per les a aplicacions que fan servir senyals de molt baixa potència. Aquest és el cas de les aplicacions que depenen dels sistemes mundials de navegació per satèl·lit (GNSS) o de les aplicacions de teledetecció passiva de microones, com la radiometria de microones (MWR) i la reflectometria GNSS (GNSS-R). Per combatre aquest problema, sistemes anti-RFI s'estan desenvolupament actualment. Aquesta tesi doctoral està dedicada al disseny, la implementació i el test de sistemes anti-RFI innovadors en els camps de MWR i GNSS. A la part dedicada als sistemes anti-RFI en MWR, aquesta tesi doctoral completa el desenvolupament de l'instrument MERITXELL. El MERITXELL és un radiòmetre multifreqüència concebut com una plataforma excepcional per la detecció, caracterització i localització de RFI a les bandes de MWR més utilitzades per sota dels 92 GHz. A més a més, es proposa una nova tècnica de mitigació de RFI per MWR: la Transformada de Fourier amb Multiresolució (MFT). El funcionament de la MFT s'ha comparat amb el d'altres tècniques de mitigació en els dominis del temps i la freqüència. D'acord amb els resultats obtinguts, la MFT és una bona solució de compromís entre les altres tècniques, ja que pot mitigar de manera eficient tots els tipus de senyals RFI considerats. A la part dedicada als sistemes anti-RFI en GNSS i GNSS-R, primer es proposa un sistema per a la detecció i localització de RFI a les bandes GNSS. Aquest sistema és capaç de detectar senyals RFI a la banda L1 amb una sensibilitat de -108 dBm a tota la banda, i de -135 dBm per a senyals d'ona contínua i chirp fen un mitjana de l'espectre. A més a més, el Coeficient de Separació Espectral Generalitzada (GSSC) es proposa com una mesura per avaluar la degradació de la relació senyal a soroll (SNR) en els Mapes de Delay-Doppler (DDM) a causa del impacte de les RFI. La major contribució d'aquesta tesi doctoral és el sistema FENIX. FENIX és un sistema innovador de detecció i mitigació de RFI i inhibidors de freqüència per aplicacions GNSS i GNSS-R. FENIX utilitza la MFT per eliminar la interferència abans del procés de correlació amb el codi GNSS independentment del tipus de RFI. L'algoritme de mitigació de FENIX s'ha avaluat i comparat amb altres tècniques i els principals components de la seva arquitectura patentada es descriuen. Finalment, un simulador anomenat FENIX-Sim permet avaluar el seu rendiment en diferents escenaris d'interferència. El funcionament en temps real del prototip FENIX ha estat provat utilitzant diferents mètodes. En primer lloc, s'ha creat un analitzador de xarxes per a mesurar la funció de transferència del FENIX en presència de diverses RFI representatives. Els resultats mostren com la funció de transferència s'adapta per mitigar el senyal interferent. A més a més, s'han realitzat diferents proves en temps real amb receptors GNSS compatibles amb els senyals GPS L1 C/A, GPS L2C i Galileo E1OS. Els resultats mostren que FENIX proporciona una resistència addicional contra les RFI i els senyals dels inhibidors de freqüència de fins a 30 dB. A més a més, FENIX s'ha provat amb un sistema comercial de temporització basat en GNSS. En condicions nominals, sense RFI, FENIX introdueix un petit error addicional de tan sols 2-4 ns. Per contra, el biaix màxim mesurat en condicions d'alta interferència (-30 dBm) és de 45 ns, el qual és acceptable per als sistemes de temporització actuals que requereixen nivells de precisió d'uns 100 ns. Finalment, es proposa el disseny d'un sistema robust de seguiment, complementari als GNSS, per a aplicacions que requereixen alta fiabilitat contra RFI.Postprint (published version

An Online Solution for Localisation, Tracking and Separation of Moving Speech Sources

The problem of separating a time varying number of speech sources in a room is difficult to solve. The challenge lies in estimating the number and the location of these speech sources. Furthermore, the tracked speech sources need to be separated. This thesis proposes a solution which utilises the Random Finite Set approach to estimate the number and location of these speech sources and subsequently separate the speech source mixture via time frequency masking

Multiple Antenna-based GPS Multipath Mitigation using Code Carrier Information

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 전기공학부, 2013. 8. 최진영.여러 응용분야에서 수 억대의 GPS(Global Positioning System) 수신기가 사용되고 있지만, GPS을 기반으로 하는 위치기반 서비스(LBS: Location Based Services)에서는 여전히 다중경로 오차와 같은 전파 방해가 발생하고 있으며, 이러한 오차들로 인하여 상관함수의 왜곡은 거리 오차가 발생에 영향을 미치고 있다. 이러한 이유로 인하여 GPS을 이용한 항법 시스템에서의 위치 정확도 향상을 위하여, 다중경로 오차를 효과 적으로 줄이기 위한 강인하고 현실적인 방법이 요구된다. 다중경로는 GPS 신호가 장애물에 의해 반사나 회절 되어 수신기에 도착할 때 잘 일어난다. 가시경로 신호에 결합된 다중경로 신호는 GPS 수신기의 상관함수의 변형을 일으키며 궁극적으로 차별함수에 영향을 미치므로 거리오차를 발생시킨다. 그러므로 다중경로 오차는 위성항법 시스템에서의 위치정확도 향상을 위해 해결 되어야 될 문제로 쟁점이 되어왔다. 최근에는 이러한 전파 간섭신호를 줄이기 위하여 다중개의 안테나(Multiple Antenna)를 이용하는 방법이 GPS 항법 시스템에서 이용되고 있다. 현 시점에서, 다중개의 안테나를 사용하는 응용분야는 주로 학술적인 연구 및 복잡한 군사용 연구로 주로 진행 되었다. 그러나 안테나 제작 방법 및 전기적 시스템의 급격한 발전으로 인해 이전의 하드웨어 및 소프웨어적인 문제를 쉽게 해결 됨에 따라 가까운 미래에는 다중 안테나 기반의 수신기가 민간 상용분야로 확대 될 것으로 예상이 된다. 또한 안테나 수신기 RF단의 소형화로 인하여 다중 안테나 시스템에서의 안테나 크기 문제점 또한 해결 가능하다. 그러므로 본 논문에서는 다중 GPS 안테나를 이용하여 GPS 항법에서의 전파 간섭 및 다중경로 오차 감쇄에 대한 연구를 목적으로 한다. 본 연구는 강한 전파 간섭 및 다중경로 신호에 대하여 공간 처리 기법을 적용한다. 제안된 새로운 방법은 다중 안테나를 기반의 코드 케리어 정보를 이용한 공간처리 기법으로 전파 간섭 및 다중경로 오차를 완화시키며, 또한 빔형성 기법을 이용하여 신호 대 잡음 비율을 최대로 한다. 제안된 성능을 검증하기 위하여 소프트웨어 GPS 수신기를 사용된다. 소프트웨어 GPS 수신기를 이용한 신호처리 기법은 새로운 장비의 제품화 및 GPS 신호 분석에 장점을 가지고 있다. 또한 GPS 알고리즘 분석 및 수신기 성능 향상 검증 등 여러 연구분야에서 널리 이용되고 있다. 본 논문에서는 제안된 방법의 성능 검증을 위하여 컴퓨터 시뮬레이션 및 가공 IF 데이터를 이용한 소프트웨어 수신기 결과를 제시한다. 그 결과 제안된 방법은 전파 간섭 및 다중경로 오차 감쇄에 강인하며, GPS 항법시스템에서의 위치정확도 향상에 가능성을 보여준다. 그로므로 제안된 방법은 차량 항법 응용분야에서 방해신호 감쇄에 사용될 것으로 예상된다.Although hundreds of millions of receivers are used all around the world, the performance of location-based services(LBS) provided by GPS is still compromised by interference which includes unintentional distortion of correlation function due to multipath propagation. For this reason, the requirement for proper mitigation techniques becomes crucial in GPS receivers for robust, accurate, and reliable positioning. Multipath propagation can easily occur when environmental features cause combinations of reflected and diffracted replica signals to arrive at the receiving antenna. These signals which are combined with the original line-of-sight (LOS) signal can cause distortion of the receiver correlation function and ultimately distortion of the discrimination functionhence, errors in range estimation occur. Therefore, multipath error in the satellite navigation system to improve location accuracy is an important issue to be addressed. Recently, interference mitigation techniques utilizing multiple antennas have gained significant attention in GPS navigation systems. Although at the time of this dissertation, employing multiple antennas in GPS applications is mostly limited to academic research and possibly complicated military applications, it is expected that in the near future, antenna array-based receivers will also become widespread in civilian commercial markets. Rapid advances in antenna design technology and electronic systems make previously challenging problems in hardware and software easier to solve. Furthermore, due to the significant effort devoted to miniaturization of RF front-ends and antennas, the size of antenna array based receivers will no longer be a problem. Given the above, this dissertation investigates multiple antenna-based GPS the interference suppression and multipath mitigation. Firstly, a modified spatial processing technique is proposed that is capable of mitigating both high power interference and coherent and correlated GPS multipath signals. The use of spatial-temporal processing for GPS multipath mitigation is studied. A new method utilizing code carrier information based on multiple antennas is proposed to deal with highly correlated multipath components and to increase the signal to noise ratio of the beamformer by synthesizing antenna array processing. In order to verify the proposed method, a software defined GPS receiver is used. Software-based GPS signal processing technique has already produced benefits for prototyping new equipment and analyzing GPS signal quality. Not only do such receivers provide an excellent research tool for GPS algorithm verification, they also improve GPS receiver performance in a wide range of conditions. In this dissertation, the enhancement of the proposed method is presented in terms of the simulations and software defined GPS receiver using simulated IF data. From the result, the proposed method is robust to interference suppression, and multipath mitigation, and shows a strong possibility for use in improving location accuracy. Thus, this method can be employed to mitigate interference signals in vehicular navigation applications.Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements iv Contents v List of Figures x List of Tables xiv Chapter 1.Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Background and Motivation 2 1.2.1 Strong Narrowband and Wideband Interference 6 1.2.2 Multipath 7 1.3 Antenna Array Processing in GPS 11 1.3.1 Interference Suppression 11 1.3.2 Multipath Mitigation 13 1.4 Software-Defined GPS Receiver 15 1.5 Objective and Contribution 17 1.6 Dissertation Outline 18 Chapter 2. Global Positioning System 21 2.1 GPS System Overview 21 2.2 Basic Concept of GSP 25 2.3 Determining Satellite to User 28 2.4 Calculation of User Position 33 2.5 GPS Error Sources 40 2.5.1 Receiver Clock Bias 41 2.5.2 Satellite Clock Bias 42 2.5.3 Atmospheric Delay 43 2.5.4 Ephemeris Delay 46 2.5.5 Multipath Error 47 2.5.6 Receiver Noise 55 2.6 Summary 55 Chapter 3. Antenna Array Processing and Beamforming 56 3.1 Background on Antenna Arrays and Beamformers 56 3.1.1 Signal Model 59 3.2 Conventional Optimum Beamformers 69 3.2.1 Minimum Variance Distortionless Response Beamformer 69 3.2.2 Maximum Likelihood Estimator 71 3.2.3 Maximum Signal to Noise Interference Ratio Beamformer 72 3.2.4 Minimum Power Distortionless Response Beamformer 75 3.2.5 Linear Constrained Minimum Variance and Linear Constrained Minimum Power Beamformers 76 3.2.6 Eigenvector Beamformer 77 3.3 Space-Time Processing 81 3.4 Array Calibration 85 3.5 Summary 86 Chapter 4. Multipath Mitigation using Code-Carrier Information 87 4.1 Introduction 87 4.2 Interference Suppression and Multipath Mitigation 88 4.2.1 Signal Model 88 4.2.2 Interference Suppression by Subspace Projection 90 4.2.3 Multipath Mitigation by Subspace Projection 93 4.3 Determination of Multipath Satellites using Code-carrier Information 95 4.4 MSR Beamformer 100 4.5 Simulation Results 102 4.5.1 Subspace Projection and Beamforming 102 4.5.2 Performance Comparison 109 4.6 Summary 111 Chapter 5. Performance Verification using Software-Defined GPS Receiver 113 5.1 Introduction 113 5.2 Software-Defined GPS Receiver Methodology 114 5.2.1 Software-Defined GPS Receiver Signals 115 5.2.2 Software-Defined GPS Receiver Modules 116 5.3 Architecture of Software-Defined GPS Receiver 120 5.3.1 GPS Signal Generation 120 5.3.2 Interference Signal Generation 124 5.3.1 Front-End Signal Processing 125 5.4 Experimental Results 126 5.3.1 Static Environments 128 5.3.2 Dynamic Environments 133 5.5 Summary 136 Chapter 6. Conclusions and Future Work 138 6.1 Conclusions 138 6.2 Future Work 139 Bibliography 142 Appendix 168 Abstract in Korean 170 Acknowledgments 173Docto