No Arabic abstract
MIMO transmit arrays allow for flexible design of the transmit beampattern. However, the large number of elements required to achieve certain performance using uniform linear arrays (ULA) maybe be too costly. This motivated the need for thinned arrays by appropriately selecting a small number of elements so that the full array beampattern is preserved. In this paper, we propose Learn-to-Select (L2S), a novel machine learning model for selecting antennas from a dense ULA employing a combination of multiple Softmax layers constrained by an orthogonalization criterion. The proposed approach can be efficiently scaled for larger problems as it avoids the combinatorial explosion of the selection problem. It also offers a flexible array design framework as the selection problem can be easily formulated for any metric.
Sparse array design aided by emerging fast sensor switching technologies can lower the overall system overhead by reducing the number of expensive transceiver chains. In this paper, we examine the active sparse array design enabling the maximum signal to interference plus noise ratio (MaxSINR) beamforming at the MIMO radar receiver. The proposed approach entails an entwined design, i.e., jointly selecting the optimum transmit and receive sensor locations for accomplishing MaxSINR receive beamforming. Specifically, we consider a co-located multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar platform with orthogonal transmitted waveforms, and examine antenna selections at the transmit and receive arrays. The optimum active sparse array transceiver design problem is formulated as successive convex approximation (SCA) alongside the two-dimensional group sparsity promoting regularization. Several examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in utilizing the given transmit/receive array aperture and degrees of freedom for achieving MaxSINR beamforming.
Cognitive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar is capable of adjusting system parameters adaptively by sensing and learning in complex dynamic environment. Beamforming performance of MIMO radar is guided by both beamforming weight coefficients and the transceiver configuration. We propose a cognitive-driven MIMO array design where both the beamforming weights and the transceiver configuration are adaptively and concurrently optimized under different environmental conditions. The perception-action cycle involves data collection of full virtual array, covariance reconstruction and joint design of the transmit and receive arrays by antenna selection.The optimal transceiver array design is realized by promoting two-dimensional group sparsity via iteratively minimizing reweighted mixed L21-norm, with constraints imposed on transceiver antenna spacing for proper transmit/receive isolation. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the perception-action capability of the proposed cognitive sparse MIMO array in achieving enhanced beamforming and anti-jamming in dynamic target and interference environment.
The requirement of high data-rate in the fifth generation wireless systems (5G) calls for the ultimate utilization of the wide bandwidth in the mmWave frequency band. Researchers seeking to compensate for mmWaves high path loss and to achieve both gain and directivity have proposed that mmWave multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems make use of beamforming systems. Hybrid beamforming in mmWave demonstrates promising performance in achieving high gain and directivity by using phase shifters at the analog processing block. What remains a problem, however, is the actual implementation of mmWave beamforming systems; to fabricate such a system is costly and complex. With the aim of reducing such cost and complexity, this article presents actual prototypes of the lens antenna as an effective device to be used in the future 5G mmWave hybrid beamforming systems. Using a lens as a passive phase shifter enables beamforming without the heavy network of active phase shifters, while gain and directivity are achieved by the energy-focusing property of the lens. Proposed in this article are two types of lens antennas, one for static and the other for mobile usage. Their performance is evaluated using measurements and simulation data along with link-level analysis via a software defined radio (SDR) platform. Results show the promising potential of the lens antenna for its high gain and directivity, and its improved beam-switching feasibility compared to when a lens is not used. System-level evaluations reveal the significant throughput enhancement in both real indoor and outdoor environments. Moreover, the lens antennas design issues are also discussed by evaluating different lens sizes.
In this work, we propose a novel strategy of adaptive sparse array beamformer design, referred to as regularized complementary antenna switching (RCAS), to swiftly adapt both array configuration and excitation weights in accordance to the dynamic environment for enhancing interference suppression. In order to achieve an implementable design of array reconfiguration, the RCAS is conducted in the framework of regularized antenna switching, whereby the full array aperture is collectively divided into separate groups and only one antenna in each group is switched on to connect with the processing channel. A set of deterministic complementary sparse arrays with good quiescent beampatterns is first designed by RCAS and full array data is collected by switching among them while maintaining resilient interference suppression. Subsequently, adaptive sparse array tailored for the specific environment is calculated and reconfigured based on the information extracted from the full array data. The RCAS is devised as an exclusive cardinality-constrained optimization, which is reformulated by introducing an auxiliary variable combined with a piece-wise linear function to approximate the $l_0$-norm function. A regularization formulation is proposed to solve the problem iteratively and eliminate the requirement of feasible initial search point. A rigorous theoretical analysis is conducted, which proves that the proposed algorithm is essentially an equivalent transformation of the original cardinality-constrained optimization. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed RCAS strategy.
The design of a conical phased array antenna for air traffic control (ATC) radar systems is addressed in this work. The array, characterized by a fully digital beam-forming (DBF) architecture, is composed of equal vertical modules consisting of linear sparse arrays able to generate on receive multiple instantaneous beams pointing along different elevation directions. The synthesis problem is cast in the Compressive Sensing (CS) framework to achieve the best trade-off between the antenna complexity (i.e., minimum number of array elements and/or radio frequency components) and radiation performance (i.e., matching of a set of reference patterns). Towards this aim, the positions of the array elements and the set of complex element excitations of each beam are jointly defined through a customized CS-based optimization tool. Representative numerical results, concerned with ideal as well as real antenna models, are reported and discussed to validate the proposed design strategy and point out the features of the deigned modular sparse arrays also in comparison with those obtained from conventional arrays with uniformly spaced elements.