Adaptive Beamforming Techniques for

Sidelobe Control and Mitigation of

Nonstationary Interference
Jacob D. Griesbach
Gerald Benitz
MIT Lincoln Laboratory

JAM
JAM

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.

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
System Parameters
Parameters
for
for GMTI
GMTI Mode
Mode
Center Freq.
Bandwidth
PRF
CPI
Rx Subarrays
Horiz. Aperture
Vert. Aperture

Ft. Huachuca, AZ
N

Aimpoint

9.72 GHz
180 MHz
2,000 Hz
56 ms
8
48 cm
18 cm

8 km
Noise Jammer
20-30 dB JNR

25 km

Aircraft
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MIT Lincoln Laboratory

LiMIT GMTI Processing

Receiver /
Front-End

(Adaptive)
Beamforming

RO

Doppler
Processing

STAP

CFAR
Detect

Param.
Estimate

Cluster

Transmit / Receive Data (96 PRIs)

8 Receive-Only PRIs

RO

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

Track

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

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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.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

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

Outline

Colored Noise Loading for Low Sidelobes

Constrained DBU for stable tracking of jammer motion

Data Results

Conclusion

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MIT Lincoln Laboratory

CBF
with SV taper

Conventional
Beamforming
(CBF)

Low Sidelobe Beamforming

Steering
Vector (v)
Channel
Data (x)

Steering
Vector (v)
Channel
Data (x)

vH x

Output
Beam Data

Taper

(D = D )

Dv
v H Dx

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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Adaptive
Beamforming
(ABF)

Low Sidelobe Adaptive Beamforming

Steering
Vector (v)

ABF
with SV taper

Channel
Data (x)

Steering
Vector (v)
Channel
Data (x)

v H R 1x

Output
Beam Data

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

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MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Colored Noise Loading

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

Parameters:
L = Loading Level

f cl = Loading Frequency
12

R cl = LD v ( v ( ) v H ( ) + v( ) v H ( ) ) d D Hv
f cl

D v = diag ( v )

f cl

f cl

w = (R + R cl ) 1 v
Steering
Vector (v)
Channel
Data (x)

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v H (R + R cl ) 1 x

Output
Beam Data
MIT Lincoln Laboratory

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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MIT Lincoln Laboratory

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

w = ( R + R cl ) C C
1

( R + R cl )

(MVDR constraint)

(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

w = ( R + R cl ) C C
1

( R + R cl )

(MVDR constraint)

(Constrained LS)

4. Check eigenvector inequality constraints

[u1

? 1

" uk ] w < 2
1
H

1
"
k2

Constrained ABF + CNL

5a. If all constraints are satisfied done

5b. If not add unmet constraints to constraint matrix

C = v ui " u j
6. Go to step 3

1
c = 1
2
i

1
"

2j

The ABF now prioritizes the interference above sidelobes by

ensuring the interference is adequately suppressed
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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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MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Derivative Based Updating (DBU)

DBU2 allows an ABF to track a spatially moving jammer

Weight vector changes linearly in slow time

Solve

H
min
w
x k ,n

k
H

w 0 v =1

k ,n


w k = w 0 + kw

1 k 1

x k ,n x kH,n

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

kx k ,n x kH,n

k 2 x k ,n x kH,n

An adaptive solution is formed for the center of the CPI

CPI center weight vector

Weight vector derivative

such
that

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

w 0  1 v
w
= R 0


Augmented steering
vector with k = 0

DBU may also be applied in frequency for wideband jamming

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2S.D.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

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

DBU Effects
(Example Simulation)
Conventional ABF

Spatially
Moving
Jammer

DBU

Spatially
Moving
Jammer

Inter-CPI Gain
Variation

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k = -1
k=0
k=1

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Constrained DBU

Constrain DBU result to have constant gain throughout CPI

Ensure unit gain on target (MVDR constraint)

H

w0 v
w
0 = 1


Ensure derivative is orthogonal to center weight vector

(new constraint)
H

w0 0
=0
w

 v

Optimal solution now given by

H
min
w
x k ,n

k
H

w k v =1

k ,n

v 0
C=

0 v

c = [1 0]

w 0  1
H  1
=
R
C
C
R C
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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MIT Lincoln Laboratory

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

Add eigenvector inequality constraints to prioritize jammers over

T
sidelobes
v 0 u

C=
0

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K
R cl
1
2
k

K

c = 1 0
 2

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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MIT Lincoln Laboratory

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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MIT Lincoln Laboratory

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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MIT Lincoln Laboratory

07/24/04 CPI# 98045687 98047507

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

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MIT Lincoln Laboratory

07/24/04 CPI# 98046337 & 98046437

Tapered Steering Vector (TSV) Comparison

30dB Taylor
TSV

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Undernulled
Jammer false
alarms

New ABF

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Standard ABF Comparison

Reg. ABF

New ABF
Sidelobe
False Alarms

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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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MIT Lincoln Laboratory