Efficient Transmit Beamspace Design for Search-free Based DOA Estimation in MIMO Radar

In this paper, we address the problem of transmit beamspace design for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar with colocated antennas in application to direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation. A new method for designing the transmit beamspace matrix that enables the use of search-free DOA estimation techniques at the receiver is introduced. The essence of the proposed method is to design the transmit beamspace matrix based on minimizing the difference between a desired transmit beampattern and the actual one under the constraint of uniform power distribution across the transmit array elements. The desired transmit beampattern can be of arbitrary shape and is allowed to consist of one or more spatial sectors. The number of transmit waveforms is even but otherwise arbitrary. To allow for simple search-free DOA estimation algorithms at the receive array, the rotational invariance property is established at the transmit array by imposing a specific structure on the beamspace matrix. Semi-definite relaxation is used to transform the proposed formulation into a convex problem that can be solved efficiently. We also propose a spatial-division based design (SDD) by dividing the spatial domain into several subsectors and assigning a subset of the transmit beams to each subsector. The transmit beams associated with each subsector are designed separately. Simulation results demonstrate the improvement in the DOA estimation performance offered by using the proposed joint and SDD transmit beamspace design methods as compared to the traditional MIMO radar technique.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, submitted to the IEEE Trans. Signal Processing in May 201

Sensor Array Signal Processing via Eigenanalysis of Matrix Pencils Composed of Data Derived from Translationally Invariant Subarrays

An algorithm is developed for estimating characteristic parameters associated with a scene of radiating sources given the data derived from a pair of translationally invariant arrays, the X and Y arrays, which are displaced relative to one another. The algorithm is referred to as PR O—E SPRIT and is predicated on invoking two recent mathematical developments: (1) the SVD based solution to the Procrustes problem of optimally approximating an invariant subspace rotation and (2) the Total Least Squares method for perturbing each of the two estimates of a common subspace in a minimal fashion until the two perturbed spaces are the same. For uniform linear array scenarios, the use of forward-backward averaging (FBAVG) in conjunction with PR O—E S PR IT is shown to effect a substantial reduction in the computational burden, a significant improvement in performance, a simple scheme for estimating the number of sources and source decorrelation. These gains may be attributed to FBAVG’s judicious exploitation of the diagonal invariance operator relating the Direction of Arrival matrix of the Y array to that associated with the X array. Similar gains may be achieved in the case where the X and Y arrays are either not linear or not uniformly spaced through the use of pseudo-forward-backward averaging (PFBAVG). However, the use of PFBAVG does not effect source decorrelation and reduces the maximum number of resolvable sources by a factor of two. Simulation studies and the results of applying PR O—E S PR IT to real data demonstrate the excellent performance of the method

White noise reduction for wideband linear array signal processing

The performance of wideband array signal processing algorithms is dependent on the noise level in the system. A method is proposed for reducing the level of white noise in wideband linear arrays via a judiciously designed spatial transformation followed by a bank of highpass filters. A detailed analysis of the method and its effect on the spectrum of the signal and noise is presented. The reduced noise level leads to a higher signal to noise ratio (SNR) for the system, which can have a significant beneficial effect on the performance of various beamforming methods and other array signal processing applications such as direction of arrival (DOA) estimation. Here we focus on the beamforming problem and study the improved performance of two well-known beamformers, namely the reference signal based (RSB) and the linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) beamformers. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results are provided

A unified approach to sparse signal processing

A unified view of the area of sparse signal processing is presented in tutorial form by bringing together various fields in which the property of sparsity has been successfully exploited. For each of these fields, various algorithms and techniques, which have been developed to leverage sparsity, are described succinctly. The common potential benefits of significant reduction in sampling rate and processing manipulations through sparse signal processing are revealed. The key application domains of sparse signal processing are sampling, coding, spectral estimation, array processing, compo-nent analysis, and multipath channel estimation. In terms of the sampling process and reconstruction algorithms, linkages are made with random sampling, compressed sensing and rate of innovation. The redundancy introduced by channel coding i

Direction of Arrival Estimation and Tracking with Sparse Arrays

Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation and tracking of a plane wave or multiple plane waves impinging on an array of sensors from noisy data are two of the most important tasks in array signal processing, which have attracted tremendous research interest over the past several decades. It is well-known that the estimation accuracy, angular resolution, tracking capacity, computational complexity, and hardware implementation cost of a DOA estimation and/or tracking technique depend largely on the array geometry. Large arrays with many sensors provide accurate DOA estimation and perfect target tracking, but they usually suffer from a high cost for hardware implementation. Sparse arrays can yield similar DOA estimates and tracking performance with fewer elements for the same-size array aperture as compared to the traditional uniform arrays. In addition, the signals of interest may have rich temporal information that can be exploited to effectively eliminate background noise and significantly improve the performance and capacity of DOA estimation and tracking, and/or even dramatically reduce the computational burden of estimation and tracking algorithms. Therefore, this thesis aims to provide some solutions to improving the DOA estimation and tracking performance by designing sparse arrays and exploiting prior knowledge of the incident signals such as AR modeled sources and known waveforms. First, we design two sparse linear arrays to efficiently extend the array aperture and improve the DOA estimation performance. One scheme is called minimum redundancy sparse subarrays (MRSSA), where the subarrays are used to obtain an extended correlation matrix according to the principle of minimum redundancy linear array (MRLA). The other linear array is constructed using two sparse ULAs, where the inter-sensor spacing within the same ULA is much larger than half wavelength. Moreover, we propose a 2-D DOA estimation method based on sparse L-shaped arrays, where the signal subspace is selected from the noise-free correlation matrix without requiring the eigen-decomposition to estimate the elevation angle, while the azimuth angles are estimated based on the modified total least squares (TLS) technique. Second, we develop two DOA estimation and tracking methods for autoregressive (AR) modeled signal source using sparse linear arrays together with Kalman filter and LS-based techniques. The proposed methods consist of two common stages: in the first stage, the sources modeled by AR processes are estimated by the celebrated Kalman filter and in the second stage, the efficient LS or TLS techniques are employed to estimate the DOAs and AR coefficients simultaneously. The AR-modeled sources can provide useful temporal information to handle cases such as the ones, where the number of sources is larger than the number of antennas. In the first method, we exploit the symmetric array to transfer a complex-valued nonlinear problem to a real-valued linear one, which can reduce the computational complexity, while in the second method, we use the ordinary sparse arrays to provide a more accurate DOA estimation. Finally, we study the problem of estimating and tracking the direction of arrivals (DOAs) of multiple moving targets with known signal source waveforms and unknown gains in the presence of Gaussian noise using a sparse sensor array. The core idea is to consider the output of each sensor as a linear regression model, each of whose coefficients contains a pair of DOAs and gain information corresponding to one target. These coefficients are determined by solving a linear least squares problem and then updating recursively, based on a block QR decomposition recursive least squares (QRD-RLS) technique or a block regularized LS technique. It is shown that the coefficients from different sensors have the same amplitude, but variable phase information for the same signal. Then, simple algebraic manipulations and the well-known generalized least squares (GLS) are used to obtain an asymptotically-optimal DOA estimate without requiring a search over a large region of the parameter space

Efficient cumulant-based methods for joint angle and frequency estimation using spatia-temporal smoothing

Most non-Gaussian signals in wireless communication array systems contain temporal correlation under a high sampling rate, which can offer more accurate direction of arrival (DOA) and frequency estimates and a larger identifiability. However, in practice, the estimation performance may severely degrade in coloured noise environments. To tackle this issue, we propose real-valued joint angle and frequency estimation (JAFE) algorithms for non-Gaussian signals using fourth-order cumulants. By exploiting the temporal correlation embedded in signals, a series of augmented cumulant matrices is constructed. For independent signals, the DOA and frequency estimates can be obtained, respectively, by leveraging a dual rotational invariance property. For coherent signals, the dual rotational invariance is constructed to estimate the generalized steering vectors, which associates the coherent signals into different groups. Then, the coherent signals in each group can be resolved by performing the forward-backward spatial smoothing. The proposed schemes not only improve the estimation accuracy, but also resolve many more signals than sensors. Besides, it is computationally efficient since it performs the estimation by the polynomial rooting in the real number field. Simulation results demonstrate the superiorities of the proposed estimator to its state-of-the-art counterparts on identifiability, estimation accuracy and robustness, especially for coherent signals.Yuexian Wang, Ling Wang, Xin Yang, Jian Xie, Brian W.-H. Ng and Peng Zhan