Passive receiving systems are used to intercept emissions of interest, both communication
and Radar, and to measure their characteristic parameters in order to classify and possibly
identify them. Direction of Arrival (DOA) is one of the most important parameters to be
measured, as it can yield a localization fix by means of triangulation (if more receivers are
dislocated on the area), or however it can help designate the target for further operations
(Neri, 2006).
There are several ways to estimate the DOA: by measuring signal amplitude received by a
rotating directional antenna, or the amplitude difference, phase difference and time
difference of arrival between two or more antennas (Wiley, 1985). A more general approach
is based on the Array Processing techniques, asdescribed in (Friedlander, 2009), considering
the complex signals received by the elements ofan array, thus taking into account both
amplitude and phase or time, and performing an estimation process.
Rotating antenna DOA can give a good accuracy, in the order of a fraction of its beamwidth,
but it works for a continuous emitter or a highrate pulse emitter in order to estimate DOA
through the analysis of amplitude shape modulated by the beam pattern on a pulse train,
and in order to have a reasonable probability of intercept.
Amplitude monopulse DOA is usually simple though not very performing due to
amplitude measurement errors (e.g. antennas ripple, multipath, unbalances).
Time difference of arrival DOA can be quite simple and accurate but it needs a large
baseline between the two antennas to have good performance.
Phase goniometry is usually very performing though accurate channel and antennas
calibrations are needed to reduce phase mismatch as required.
The optimum performance is given by the array processing techniques: beamforming,
maximum likelihood and super-resolution techniques like MUSIC (Smidth, 1986; Poisel,
2002; Friedlander, 2009).
In communication band passive receivers are usually equipped with phase interferometers,
as amplitude information is poor. In the next paragraph the basic principle of interferometry
is described.
đang được dịch, vui lòng đợi..