Adaptive Beamforming Techniques for Sidelobe Control and Mitigation of Nonstationary Interference

Jacob D. Griesbach Gerald Benitz MIT Lincoln Laboratory June 7th, 2005
This work is sponsored by the Air Force, under Air Force contract FA8721-05-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the authors, and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Government.

JAM JAM

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

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Adaptive Beamforming Motivation

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Adaptive Beamforming (ABF) suppresses interference to improve SINR Low sidelobe beams benefit clutter suppression techniques and require fewer ABF DOFs to mitigate sidelobe jamming Allow nulling to track inter-CPI interference motion
MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Lincoln Multi-Mission ISR Testbed (LiMIT)

Boeing 707

System Parameters System Parameters for GMTI Mode for GMTI Mode
Center Freq. Bandwidth PRF CPI Rx Subarrays Horiz. Aperture Vert. Aperture 9.72 GHz 180 MHz 2,000 Hz 56 ms 8 48 cm 18 cm

Ft. Huachuca, AZ
N

Aimpoint 8 km Noise Jammer 20-30 dB JNR

25 km

Aircraft
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LiMIT GMTI Processing

Receiver / Front-End (Adaptive) Beamforming Doppler Processing STAP CFAR Detect Param. Estimate Cluster Track

RO

Transmit / Receive Data (96 PRIs)

RO

8 Receive-Only PRIs

8 Receive-Only PRIs

8 Receive-Only PRIs provide ABF training data before and after CPI LiMIT-tuned 2-Parameter Power-Variable-Training STAP algorithm1
LiMIT aperture transmits with a uniform taper that results in multiple Dopplerwrapped clutter ridges STAP algorithm uses phase to select training samples from modeled clutter ridge Will not cancel residual interference left over from ABF

Adaptive beamforming goals

Must suppress unwanted interference Low sidelobe beams from ABF help STAP suppress secondary clutter ridges Must also form a beamset that covers clutter to be mitigated by STAP
1G.

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Benitz, J.D. Griesbach, C. Rader, Two-Parameter Power-Variable Training STAP, Proceedings of the 38th Asilomar conference on signals, systems, and computers, Pacific Grove, CA, Nov. 7-10, 2004, pp. 2359-2363

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Outline

Colored Noise Loading for Low Sidelobes Constrained DBU for stable tracking of jammer motion Data Results Conclusion

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Low Sidelobe Beamforming

Conventional Beamforming (CBF)
Steering Vector (v) Channel Data (x)

vH x

Output Beam Data

CBF with SV taper

Steering Vector (v) Channel Data (x)

Taper

Dv v H Dx

(D = D )
H

Output Beam Data

CBF optimally maximizes SNR to a given v Sidelobes are controlled (not data adaptive) Does not necessarily suppress strong or mainbeam interference sources
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Low Sidelobe Adaptive Beamforming

Adaptive Beamforming (ABF)
Steering Vector (v) Channel Data (x)

v H R 1x

Output Beam Data

ABF with SV taper

Steering Vector (v) Channel Data (x)

Taper

Dv v H DR 1x
Output Beam Data

ABF optimally maximizes SINR to a given v Sidelobes are not necessarily controlled (data adaptive) Can suppress strong or mainbeam interference sources
MIT Lincoln Laboratory

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Colored Noise Loading

Idea: Optimally suppress sidelobes+interference, by modeling external sidelobe interference in data covariance
Parameters: L = Loading Level

f cl = Loading Frequency
R cl = LD v ( v ( ) v H ( ) + v( ) v H ( ) ) d D H v
f cl 12

D v = diag ( v )
w = (R + R cl ) 1 v

f cl

f cl

Steering Vector (v) Channel Data (x)

v H (R + R cl ) 1 x

Output Beam Data

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Sidelobe Jamming Comparison

ABF Tapered SV

Using a tapered steering vector works with sidelobe jamming:

ABF + CNL Colored noise loading also works well with sidelobe jamming:

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Mainbeam Jamming Comparison

ABF Tapered SV

TSV ABF does not appropriately model steering vector:

ABF + CNL Mainbeam jamming causes CNL ABF to trade-off jammer & sidelobe suppression:

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ABF Colored Noise Loading

1. Let u1- uk denote eigenvectors of R that have eigenvalues, 2 > Tev 2. Let C denote linear constraints such that CHw = c

C=v
3. Solve

c =1
1

(MVDR constraint)

w = ( R + R cl ) C C

( R + R cl )

(Constrained LS) ABF + CNL

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Inequality Constrained ABF Colored Noise Loading

1. Let u1- uk denote eigenvectors of R that have eigenvalues, 2 > Tev 2. Let C denote linear constraints such that CHw = c

C=v
3. Solve

c =1
1

(MVDR constraint)

w = ( R + R cl ) C C

( R + R cl )

c
T

(Constrained LS) Constrained ABF + CNL

4. Check eigenvector inequality constraints

[u1

? 1 H uk ] w < 2 1

1 k2

5a. If all constraints are satisfied done 5b. If not add unmet constraints to constraint matrix

C = v ui
6. Go to step 3

uj

1 c = 1 2 i

1 2 j

The ABF now prioritizes the interference above sidelobes by ensuring the interference is adequately suppressed
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Outline

Colored Noise Loading for Low Sidelobes Constrained DBU for stable tracking of jammer motion Data Results Conclusion

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Derivative Based Updating (DBU)

DBU2 allows an ABF to track a spatially moving jammer

Weight vector changes linearly in slow time Solve
w 0 v =1

min w x k ,n H
H k k ,n

such that

w k = w 0 + kw

1 k 1

where k denotes the relative pulse index throughout the CPI and n indexes fast-time (range) An augmented covariance matrix is computed

1 R= KN

CPI center weight vector Weight vector derivative

H x k ,n x k ,n kx x H k ,n k ,n k ,n

H kx k ,n x k ,n H k 2 x k ,n x k ,n

An adaptive solution is formed for the center of the CPI

w0 1 v w = R 0

Augmented steering vector with k = 0

DBU may also be applied in frequency for wideband jamming

2S.D.

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Hayward, Adaptive beamforming for rapidly moving arrays, in CIE International Conference Proceedings, Oct. 1996, pp. 480--483

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

DBU Effects
(Example Simulation)
Conventional ABF DBU

Spatially Moving Jammer

Spatially Moving Jammer

Inter-CPI Gain Variation

k = -1 k=0 k=1

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Constrained DBU

Constrain DBU result to have constant gain throughout CPI

Ensure unit gain on target (MVDR constraint)

w0 v w 0 = 1
Ensure derivative is orthogonal to center weight vector (new constraint)

w0 0 w v = 0
Optimal solution now given by

w k v =1

min w x k ,n H
H k k ,n

v 0 C= 0 v

c = [1 0]

w 0 = R 1C C H R 1C w

w k = w 0 + kw
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Constrained DBU Results

Conventional DBU Constrained DBU

k = -1 k=0 k=1

Constraining the weight derivative to be orthogonal to the steering vector provides a gain invariant solution
Holds gain fixed for steering vector direction May disrupt sidelobes

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Constrained DBU with Colored Noise Loading

Constrained DBU Constrained DBU w/ CNL

k = -1 k=0 k=1

Constrained DBU modifications for colored noise loading

Add colored noise loading covariance to augmented covariance

1 R cl = 1 k K

1 k K R cl 1 k2 K

Add eigenvector inequality constraints to prioritize jammers over T sidelobes v 0 u

C= 0

1 c = 1 0 2

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Outline

Colored Noise Loading for Low Sidelobes Constrained DBU for stable tracking of jammer motion Data Results Conclusion

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Ft. Huachuca GMTI Displays

SAR Image (1m resolution)

Range/Doppler Detection Range/Doppler Cluster Range/Angle Localization GPS Ground Truth Jammer Angle
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07/24/04 CPI# 98045687

GMTI Movie
Desired Beams
Jamming Angles

Range/Doppler Detection Range/Doppler Cluster Range/Angle Localization GPS Ground Truth Jammer Angle

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07/24/04 CPI# 98045687 98047507

Selected Frames
Doppler Aliased Clutter Filling in Jammer Null Close-In Detection

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07/24/04 CPI# 98046337 & 98046437

Tapered Steering Vector (TSV) Comparison

30dB Taylor
TSV
Undernulled Jammer false alarms

New ABF

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Standard ABF Comparison

Reg. ABF
Sidelobe False Alarms

New ABF

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Conclusions

Propose two ABF modifications

Colored noise loading for low sidelobes with inequality constraints to ensure mainbeam interference suppression Constrained DBU for constant aimpoint gain with nonstationary interference

Both techniques may be utilized together to form a robust ABF algorithm

Demonstrated performance enhancements on data relative to standard adaptive beamforming techniques

May be applied to multi-channel SAR, GMTI, and SONAR data

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