Multiple Antenna Array Signal Collecting and Processing

Abstract

This paper analyzes an optimal data collection and processing system for detecting a random signal field in a random noise field employing multiple antennas. The statistical model consists of a Gaussian random signal field and an independent Gaussian noise field. The time optimal data processing system to be analyzed is specified in terms of array deployment and signal/noise space time correlation structure. An exact expression for the characteristic function of the test statistic computed by the space-time signal processor is derived under the assumptions of stationarity and a long observation time. Analytical difficulties involved in evaluating and inverse transforming the characteristic function are considered through case studies. The test statistic is analytically shown to reduce to a Gaussian random variable in the threshold case for the array situation. The dependence of receiver performance on the spacetime correlation structure of the signal and noise fields, the antenna deployment, and the optimal performance criteria (outage rate, p re-detection signal-to-noise ratio, etc.) is considered. Optimal antenna deployment is considered, for the threshold case, in terms of several physically realistic signal and noise field space-time correlation structure models.