Transmitter Frequency and Position Detection Methods For Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) Systems

Walter Fisch, Vitali Chtchekatourov, Peter Russer Institut fuer Hochfrequenztechnik Technische Universitaet Muenchen Arcisstrasse 21, D-80333 Muenchen e-mail: fischei.tum.de

Abstract
In this paper three different methods to detect frequency and position of transmitters are presented. Averaging approaches for onedimensional and two-dimensional arrays are used. The advantage of the methods are their efficiency and high resolution in space domain. To achieve the required position detection accuracy in SDMA systems the parameter estimations of the transmitters are performed either by parametrical or non-parametrical high resolution methods like ESPRIT, Prony or Pencil-offunction [1]. Special methods of noise parameter averaging in the multi-channel correlation matrix are explained in this paper to reduce the signalto-noise-ratio.

flbr pSwbd. 1.575a

N.S. I fmUay x

mkn -W VW b. &awn h PLD .@ .Shd ty 0

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the satellite tracking system for the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Introduct'ion

The rapidly growing demand for higher data rates in modern wireless communication systems requires the use of the available frequency bands with maximum efficiency. SDMA is a powerful approach in this direction [2]. In the case of mobile communication systems SDMA requires base stations with smart antennas with tracking capability [3]. Common tracking systems with digital beam forming in the digitised intermediate frequency range use the analysis of cross correlation functions and Fourier-transform to detect the satellite positions in frequency and space [5]. The advantage of these methods is the simplicity of their algorithmic implementation and the low number of operations to compute the transmitter positions. Disadvantages of the state of the art methods are their limited resolution and low accuracy in position and frequency detection. These drawbacks may be overcome applying a combination of well known methods of high-resolution spectral analysis [1] with complexvalue signal processing, high order correlation [1], noise averaging and windowing in time-, frequency- and spacedomain. In the following transmitter detection and noise averaging methods in SDMA systems will be introduced. These methods are based on the application of Fourier-

transforms for a coarse position detection and parametrical methods of estimation if higher resolution is required. By these methods an optimum combination of accuracy and efficiency is achieved with the help of special averaging. The methods are demonstrated by its application in a GPS satellite tracking system with digital beam forming in the intermediate frequency range.

The Hybrid Detection GPS Thacking System

The schematic diagram of the hybrid detection (HD) GPS tracking system is depicted in Fig. 1. The system consists of a planar 5 x 5 antenna array for 1.575 GHz, down conversion circuits for each antenna element to the IF of 4.3 MHz, analog-/digital-conversion (ADC) and digital signal processing (DSP) in the IF-range to detect the transmitter positions. Further components of the HD system are a programmable logic device (PLD) to form the wanted receiving antenna characteristic and a GPS correlator to compute the position of the user. The operation of the system has already been described in [4]. This paper deals with the implementation of the HD detection method into this system. Fig. 2 depicts the signal processing flow chart. The antenna element signals 161

29th European Microwave Conference - Munich 1999

0om amu

(SNR) of the received signals a method based on an additional averaging process of the multi-channel correlation matrix c is performed. The index b=O..M-1 of the averaged multi-channel correlation matrix elements 4k,b denotes the cross-correlation between antenna elements spaced by b-fold antenna element distances d.
Ck, b
=

-'S,

Mabm

<

M-b

M-b-1
r=o

Ck,r+b,r

tiAaaf

Figure 2: Signal processing flow chart.

A two-dimensional Fourier-transform with respect to the time coordinate k and the space coordinate b is applied to the averaged multi-channel correlation matrix c to receive the multi-channel two-dimensional power density spectrum (2D-PDS) matrix P = [P77,,.
Mw

11M-1 N-1
N E b=O k=O

^.1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~) 4

E:

Wk,b -Ck,b

e-j2-7( M

Figure 3: Symmetrical spectrum of the real-valued IF GPS-signal with C-/A-code and spectrum of the complex-valued envelope signal centred at the origin.
are down-converted into the IF range by analog mixers. The IF signals are sampled and digitised. After numerical Hilbert-transform and frequency shift the inphase and quadrature components of the complex analytic signals are formed (Fig. 3). The subsequent blocks in the flow chart describe the noise averaging, signal windowing, Fourier-transform, parameter estimation and the calculation of the weighting vectors. These processing steps are described in detail in the following.

The Linear Antenna Array

The maxima [Pj7m&x,tm&j in P show the positions of the received transmitters in the discretised frequencyangular-((, R)-plane. The transmitter frequencies f = L t7max A and 7 the angular positions of the transmitters have to be evaluated. The parame= max Mter hzeros introduces a number of additional zero-valued elements in the averaged correlation matrix c5 to increase the sample number in the angular domain and parameter f8 denotes the sampling frequency. The advantages of the two-dimensional Fourier-transform with the presented averaging methods are the high efficiency for a coarse position detection in space and frequency and the robustness for high signal-to-noise-ratios. Fig. 4 depicts a surface plot of the simulated two-dimensional power density spectrum for two satellites at elevation angles of 200 and 800 in the discretised frequency-angular-plane. If a small number of transmitters has to be detected the position estimation based on the one-dimensional power density spectrum (1D-PDS) P = [Pi1,b] of the multichannel correlation matrix with the normalised frequency r7 = O..N - 1 is used to improve the position estimation accuracy [1]:

The multi-channel correlation matrix c = [ck,1,m] with time coordinate k=O..N-1 and space coordinates 4,m=. .M-1 of the antenna array signals is given by
ck, I "m-= Ck,0,0 C=ck1O
Ck,M,o

P,,=

N-1
k

E Wk,b
k=O

Ck,b

e-j2ir

IN-k-1
-

n=0

Xn+k,lxn,m

Ck,o,l

Ckj,,1

CIkCO,M
Ck,M

Ck,M,1

*.X Ck,M,M I

The diagonal elements of c for l=m are the autocorrelation vectors and the off-diagonal elements the cross-correlation vectors of the antenna element signal matrix x = [xk,m] . To enhance the signal-to-noise-ratio

the sidelobe levels and sidelobe fall-off rates improve the estimation results of the transmitter positions. The coherence phase spectrum (CPS) vector elements are the arguments of the ratio between the multi-channel PDS cross-correlation elements and the multi-channel PDS auto-correlation elements. The averaged CPS elements O,, between signals of neighbouring antenna elements are determined via

Special windows Wb,k = [Wub,k] independently controlling

077

M-i
M-l __

ta

Im E-.(0)

162

29th European Microwave Conference - Munich 1999

The structure of the correlation matrix for averaging is depicted below. The character denotes the direction and the index the grade of averaging (2 means averaging between the next but one element). The characters x and y denote averaging in horizontal and vertical direction, the character r and f the rising and falling diagonal averaging. A indicates the auto-correlation elements. ai a21 a3l a12 a22 a32 al3 a23 ag3
a3 a3l a212
al2 a22

A
Yi y2
Xi

A
ri
Xi

A
ri

Figure 4: Angular-frequency distribution of the received GPS-signals with C-/A-code (1 MHz bandwidth) for 2 satellites and 5 antenna elements.
The angular transmitter positions r/n for the normalised frequency t7 and the element distance d are given by
A 07=
2rrd

as2 ale
a2l ass

f,

A
Yl YX

A A X2 f2 fA X1 Y1 Structure of the correlation matrix for averaging.

X2

X2

ft

A
Yi rI Xl

r2

f,

Yi y2

The averaged multi-channel correlation matrix Ex with horizontal averaging is calculated using

[tXk,b]

sin-1 (6,)
in

1
CXk,b
=

77

MV

M2_-Mb-1 Ck,r,r+Mb YE
r=O

In the case of a higher number of transmitters a rapid increase of the computational effort occurs due to the superposition of all angular transmitter positions. For highest accuracy in position detection the HD system a combination of one-dimensional Fourier-transform and highresolution position estimation methods (ESPRIT, Pencilof-function, Prony) and their modifications is advantaged. In this case a one-dimensional Fourier-transform (iDY)DS) is used for frequency estimation.
N-1
PrnbkY

with the multi-channel correlation matrix c = [ck,L,m] The averaged vertical multi-channel correlation matrix

cy = [Eyk,b]

is

computed by
1

M2-b-1
aYk,r,r+b

CY&

r=O

with

aYk,t,0m
-i2ir

Ck,l,m

iM-bxM-b
obxM-b

oM-bxb 0bxb

MxM

NEwUk,b.tk,b.*e
k=O

Although the frequencies of the GPS-satellites are known the estimation of the frequencies is necessary because of the pseudo-random-noise structure of the signal code and the carrier signal suppression.

whereas I is the identity matix, 0 is the zero matrix and 0 denotes the Kronecker product. Alternatively, in two diagonal directions, rising and falling diagonals, averaging of the correlation matrix can be performed. The averaged rising diagonal multi-channel correlation matrix Er [Jrk,b] follows form
=

The 2-D Antenna Array

crkb
=

M2-(M- i)-1
E r=O

In the following averaging methods concerning to the GPS application will be illustrated by a 3 x 3 rectangular array. The antenna element indices are composed by the column and the row index of the antenna configuration:
all
a21 a31
a12 a22 a32
a13

(M -b)2

crk,r,r+(M-l))b
0 M-bxb

with
Wrk,l,m Ck,i,m
([obxb
oM-bxb

IM-bxM-b

imxm)

a23
a33

and the averaged falling diagonal multi-channel correlation matrix

cr

[irk,b]
.

form

In order to describe a two-dimensional matrix by a one-dimensional vector we use the following numbering scheme:
{

M2_(M+l)b-1

Cfk,b

(M -b)2

YE

Cjfk,r,r+(M-l)b

ail

a12

a13

a21

a22

a23

a3l

a32

a33

with
Zfkl, =ckl,,
* [M-bxM-b bxM-b
obxb OM-bxb

and the 9 lished.

9 element correlation matrix will be estab-

lx

163
29th

European

Microwave Conference

Munich 1999

Where W1,h is the estimated and '3LIh the true satellite position, L - the number of satellites and H - the number of trial runs. The noise threshold of the high resolution methods in our application is about -5 dB (Fig. 5). In contrast to that the threshold of Fourier-transform based averaging methods for one transmitter is about -10 dB to -15 dB.

Conclusion

-15

-10

SNR fdBJ

10

IS

Figure 5: Estimation methods for the GPS-signal with C-/A-code

-s

-.-.------

SN'R [B
S

[dB]

S10

In modern communication and navigation systems signalto-noise-ratio enhancement is achieved via the application of smart antennas. Accurate, fast, efficient and robust methods for direction and frequency estimation of the transmitters are required to form the antenna characteristics adaptively. The choice of the optimum method depends on the number of transmitters, the antenna size and element arrangement and the required accuracy of transmitter positions estimation. In this paper various methods for direction and frequency estimation have been investigated. We have compared Fourier-transform based one- and two-dimensional methods with different high-resolution methods. The twodimensional Fourier-transform based method exhibits high efficiency for a coarse position detection in space and frequency. For a small number of transmitters the one-dimensional approach in connection with averaging methods achieves higher accuracy and a lower noise threshold. The hybrid detection (HD) method combines the advantages of flexibility and high resolution of parametrical methods and the efficiency of Fourier-transform based methods with averaging. Furthermore for a higher number of transmitters the HD method exhibits the least computational effort. In the presented application the HD method is used to track at least four satellites simultaneously and independently.

Figure 6: High resolution estimation methods for the GPS-signal with C-/A-code

References
[1] S. Lawrence Marple Jr., "Digital Spectrum Analysis", Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey, 1986. [2] P. Wong, D. Britland, "Mobile Data Communications Systems", Artech House Publishers, Boston, 1995.
[3] J. E. Hudson, "Adaptive Array Principles", IEE electromagnetic wave series 11, London, U.K., 1981.

5
gree

Results

In Fig. 5 and 6 the RMS (root mean square) error in deof the estimated satellite position versus the signalto-noise-ratio (SNR) is depicted. In the case of one estimated satellite position (200, Fig.5) averaged Fouriertransform methods yield to minimal RMS error and provides good results in a small valued SNR range. If a high number of satellite positions have to be estimated high resolution methods are suggested to be used. The RMS error u, in degree versus the SNR is depicted in Fig. 5 for two satellites (200 and 400).
L-1

[4] W. Fisch, P. Russer, "Adaptive Beam Forming System", MTT-S European Wireless 98, October 8-9, Amsterdam, Netherlands, October 1998. [5] E. Nicolau, D. Zaharia, "Adaptive Arrays", Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1989. [6] R. Monzingo, T. Miller, "Introduction to Adaptive Arrays", A Willey-Interscience Publication, New York, 1980.

aotq

1=0

E= EQ (,hh=O \L H

H-1

164 29th European Microwave Conference - Munich 1999