An Efficient Subband Method for Wideband
Adaptive Bearnforming
Longyang Huang*, Bin Shent, Mengxing Li* and Zemin Liu*
*
Telecommunication Engineering School, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China
longyanghuang@gmail.com
t Telecommunication Engineering Lab, Graduate School of Information Technology and Telecommunications,
Inha University, Incheon, 402-751, Korea
shenbinem@gmail.com
Abstract - An efficient subband adaptive beamformer with
perfect reconstruction general parameter filter banks (GPFB)
for wideband array antenna is proposed in this paper, which is
used to enhance performance of suppressing the interference and
accelerate convergence speed of weights. Instead of the
conventional FFT filter banks, GPFB are utilized to partition the
frequency band into several subbands without aliasing between
them. With Subbands running at downsampling and in manner
of parallel, the loads of computational processing costs,
compared with traditional fullband methods, can be alleviated.
Deep suppression of the interference and convergence speed of
weights are also improved.
Keywords - Subband, general parameter filter, wideband,
adaptive beamforming.
1. Introduction
Wideband adaptive beamforming using sensor arrays is an
important research topic in array signal processing. It has
found numerous applications in radio communications, sonar,
radar, seismology, acoustics, and microphone arrays [1,2,3].
In order to respond to the challenge resulted from larger
bandwidth signals employed in wireless broadband
communication for providing a wide variety of services, two
types of main methods for wideband beamforming based on
time and frequency domain processing have been under
research [1]. Both of them can produce frequency invariant
beam patterns for a wide signal bandwidth.
The Frost processor [2,3,4] and the generalized sidelobe
canceller (GSC) beamformer [2,3,5] are two types of
traditional broadband beamformers using a tapped delay line
(TDL) structure, i.e., finite impulse response (FIR) filter, in
each channel to achieve good interference suppression
performance over a wide bandwidth in time domain
processing. However, a longer filter is normally needed for
processing larger bandwidth signals leading to a larger
computation requirement [3]. The weights convergence speed
is slow as computation load is heavy using this method. A
general frequency domain processing is transforming
wideband time domain signals output of each sensor into
frequency domain using fast Fourier transform (FFT)
algorithm, and then each frequency bin is processed by a
narrow-band processor structure [2,3]. This selection may be
performed in parallel, leading to a faster weight update. But
ISBN 978-89-5519-136-3 -1489-
the cross correlation between bins introduced by the algorithm
results in aliasing, due to the slow roll offthe transfer function
ofthe FFT filter [6]. An alternative solution to minimizing this
undesired effect is proposed by introducing filter banks with a
sharp cut-off frequency spectrum, such as quadrature-
mirror-filter banks [7], cosine-modulated filter banks [8].
In this paper, we offer another efficient subband array
beamforming method with excellent GPFB [9]. General
parameter filter is infinite impulse response (IIR) filter
essentially, but complex zeroes with quadrantal symmetry are
added, which can be used to adjust both amplitude and delay
characteristics (mostly for the latter). These contribute to
excellent filter which possesses not only IIR filter's efficiency
but also finite impulse response (FIR) filter's linear phase. The
basic idea of the subband method is to decompose a fullband
signal by means of GPFB into several frequency subbands,
instead of the conventional FFT filter banks, each runs at
downsampling rate due to the narrower band. Any
computational costly processing can be performed in the
decimated subbands at a lower update rate.
The paper is organized as follows. In section 2, the
background on the conventional Frost beamformer and
general parameter filter banks will be introduced briefly. In
section 3, the subband array principles and method with
minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) criterion
will be described. In section 4, simulation results and analysis
will be presented to illustrate the improved performance. In
section 5, brief conclusions will be drawn.
2. Background
Figure 1 illustrates the conventional Frost beamforming
structure [4] consisting of M sensors and J taps for each
sensor. A group of presteering delays T1 , T2 ,- , TM are
attached after the sensors to align the signals to the look
direction and to yield identical waveforms after steering
delays, these steering delays have to be frequency independent
in order to operate for broadband signals. Transversal filters
are implemented using tapped delay lines in each channel. T
is the time delay between any two adjacent taps.
Xm(n - (j -1)T), (m = 1, 2,...M; j = 1, 2,...J) is the sampled
data. Where xm (n) is the presteered data from the m -th sensor.
All the data samples are weighted and summed together to get
Feb. 17-20, 2008 ICACT 2008

Figure 1. Conventional Frost Beamformer
(n
H
(HInx (n, )
x(n) (_n
L *pE 2 x )) --g3(nT2
+ T)
(a)
Figure 2. Four-channel Analysis Filter Banks with Different Structure
(a) Schematic diagram of a two-level tree structure with two-channel
filter banks; (b) Schematic diagram of a parallel structure with
four-channel filter banks.
the desired output signal. The weights are adjusted by
minimizing the mean output power subjected to look direction
constraints, they can been updated by the some kinds of
adaptive algorithms, constrained LMS algorithm is normally
used in conventional beamformer.
Filter banks and multirate digital filter have been employed
in applications such as speech processing, image compression,
communications, radar systems and antenna systems [6].The
four-channel GPFB adopted in this paper consist of general
parameter filter units, whose amplitudes and delay (or phase)
characteristics are all considered. Individual filter is
implemented by introducing complex zeroes with quadrantal
symmetry in classic filter transfer function, which helps to
optimize the delay characteristic within pass band. It can be
simply expressed in analog domain as [10]:
H(s)
H = i,2sJJs
(s n( J)
n(S %[s
+ Q~JJ( ~))
+ Ck, c
(-k +C2
2
where X is a constant decided by amplitude within pass band,
I is the number of zeroes when s = 0 , Qi is the zeroes in
axis jw, L is the number of Qi pairs, Ckl and Ck2 are complex
zeroes introduced, N is the number of complex zero
pairs, E(s) is Hurwitz polynomial. It is noted that the phase
optimization design is only depending on these complex
zeroes, and adding balance units to optimize phase
characteristic after transfer function used in conventional
method is unnecessary in this filter design. The details on the
design of individual filter and filter banks can be found in [10]
and [9] respectively. Bandsplitting can be carried out by using
different methods. The incoming signal can be partitioned
using a tree structure of a two-channel filter banks with many
levels as shown in Figure 2 (a). The advantage of this method
is that a perfect reconstruction two-channel filter banks can be
carried out comparatively easy, but filter banks suffer from the
considerable required computation load, memory space and
ISBN 978-89-5519-136-3
time delay. Alternatively, the signal can be divided into the
required P bins by using a P -channel filter banks directly
(Figure 2 (b)). The disadvantage of tree structure is avoided by
using this method, but the P -channel perfect reconstruction
filter banks design is more difficult than two-channel filter
banks design. Cosine-modulated filter banks are widely used
since they can be implemented by cosine modulation [8]. In
our case, we are using the second structure of band-splitting
with four-channel GPFB because they not only have excellent
performance but also can be carried out easy too [9].
3. Subband adaptive array beamforming
In this paper, we utilize uniform GPFB instead of the
traditional FFT filter banks to minimize the effect of aliasing
nT) between adjacent subbands. The structure is illustrated by
Figure 3. (w: weights of the associated taps; A: analysis filter
banks; S: synthesis filter banks (A and S are GPFB); t Q:
(b) decimation by Q; 1 Q: interpolation by Q; P: the number
of filter banks channels, Q < P; M: the number of array
sensors; J: the number of taps, T: delay unit).
xl(t) presteer
I mnore(k)toplifyo
yd, dsuio its A
XM (t) Ym k<
YMP(k . -S
Tapped D)elay Line structure [
Figure 3. Structure of Subband Adaptive Array with GPFB
We assume that the output of each sensor has been
demodulated and sampled in an appropriate sample frequency.
In order to simplify our discussion, it is assumed that the array
has been pre-steered so that the desired signal is aligned at
+'~2
ck2 (s)(1
c% 2E(s
various sensors in the array. These analysis filter banks
connected after each sensor are used to split those induced
signals of each sensor into four identical bandwidth subbands,
each spaning one quarter of the input original bandwidth. The
aliasing between of adjacent subbands can be ignored because
these GPFB can provide a sharp cut off of the frequency
spectrum. As a result, each subband signal can be run at one
quarter sampling rate ofthe fullband signal, which is achieved
by the decimator after the analysis filter banks. The
beamformer becomes a system consisting of four subband
processing subsystems, and each subband is optimized for
maintaining the desired signals and suppressing the interferers
through adaptive adjusting weights simultaneously. The
outputs of the adaptive beamformer from each subband are
then interpolated by a factor of Q for renewing original rate.
After this, both signals are recombined by synthesis filter
banks. In such a way, the signal bandwidth comes back to
original bandwidth with no aliasing distortion. A quadratic
residue decomposition (QRD) algorithm based MVDR
-1 490- Feb. 17-20, 2008 ICACT 2008
criterion can be used for the subband array beamforming
application. It is well known that QRD technique is
numerically stable and can be implemented in triangular
processor arrays and has been used to implement the MVDR
method efficiently and in an iterative manner [11].
As shown in Figure 3, for a uniform linear antenna array
consisting of M equispaced nonisotropic sensors, the
complex data value induced at time n is given as
x(n) =(xl (n),x2 (n) ...
xm (n) xM (n)) (2)
where superscript T denotes transpose of matrix or vector.
Assume that the filter impulse response corresponding to
the p -th subband of analysis GPFB is h, (n) (p = 1,2, P),
the order is I. After decimated by Q, the received data of
p -th subband of the m -th sensor at time k is given by
Yp, (k) =hp (k) * Xm (k) hp (i) Xm (k-i) (3)
=
where the notation * stands for convolution. Define Yp (k) as
k x 1 vector which corresponds to the latest k received data
of m -th sensor, then
Yp (k) = (Ypm (1), Ypm (2), Ypm (k))T
(4)
Y (k) is expressed as kxM complex data matrix which
corresponds to the p -th subband of each sensor
Yp (k) = A (k) (Y I (k), Yp (k), YPM (k)) (5)
the diagonal weighted matrix A(k) = diag(tk-l'...Al, 1), i is
forgetting factor and 0 <. <. 1
Now we consider the p -th subband, and look for the
optimal weight vectors for the subband according to the
received data matrix mentioned above. When the MVDR
criterion is considered, as shown in [2,3], the optimal weight
vectors minimizes the output power and subject to the
response to look direction is unit for all k. The cost function
also can be described as a squared Euclidean norm [ 11 ]:
min imize |A'1/2 (k) Y (k) w (k) s. t. wHa (0d) =1 (6)
for all k, the wp is the optimal weight vectors for the p -th
subband, a(Od) is steering vector of look direction Od ,
superscript H denotes Hermitian transpose. Then, we can get
the estimate of wp (k) [11]:
wp (k) = _(0d (k) (k) a (Od)
a(Od)
,
aH
A-' (k)A-H (k)A() -'A(k)sp(k)
aH (0d)A-l (k)APH (k)a()s0d (k)sp (k)
where M x M correlation matrix of p -th subband (p (k) is
the exponentially weighted sensor outputs averaged over k,
where AP (k) is the upper triangular matrix that results from
the application of the QRD to the data matrix Yp (k), define
sp (k) = A-H (k)a(k) is an auxiliary vector. The components
A-' (k) and s, (k) can be efficiently computed by a triangular
systolic array based on the householder transformation [ 12]. It
ISBN 978-89-5519-136-3 -1 491 -
operates recursively by using each snapshot ofreceived data to
update the estimate of weight vectors. Especially, by taking
advantage of the time properties inherent in the data of the
wideband beamformer, the computational load of a least
squares algorithm may be reduced obviously with lattice
triangular systolic array [13]. As a result, the output of the
p -th subband is O. (k) = w$p (k)Yp (k) . With identical
processing each subband output can be obtained. Assume that
the filter impulse response corresponding to the p -th subband
of synthesis GPFB is gp (n) (p = 1, 2,... P), the order is I too.
The output ofthe whole beamformer interpolated by Q before
being combined with all P subbands is
d (n)=Y
=, 1gi=1gp (i)*OP (n-i) (8)
The mean square error is calculated as
e(n)]2 =ELd(n)-d(n))
Jmin = E (9)
4. Simulations and discussions
The performance of the adaptive beamfroming is evaluated
for fullband and subband cases respectively in this section.
Assume that M is 5 and J is 5 too, the sensor has an
omnidirectional pattern and the interval between adjacent
sensor is half wavelength of the maximal frequency of the
signal. We assume the received signal is a time division
multiple access (TDMA) signal with binary phase shift keying
(BPSK) modulation with 4 MHz bandwidth. The carrier
frequency is fixed at 8 MHz and the original sampling rate is
32 MHz. In addition, white Gaussian noise in each sensor is
with unit variance and zero mean. One interference signal with
interference to noise ratio (INR) is 30 dB with the same
frequency span of desired signal, which comes from 0 degree.
The desired signal comes from 30 degree with 10 dB signal to
noise ratio (SNR). All of the above signals are uncorrelated
with each other and the steering vector a(o) and desired
signal d(n) are available, the forgetting factor A = 1.
Four-channel maximally decimated GPFB designed in [10]
are used in this paper, i.e. Q = P = 4. Each individual filter is
Butterworth general parameter filter with order of 16, N is 2
and the original amplitude fluctuation within pass band is
0.5dB. There are 8 complex zeroes at c0= ;T and cv= 0 for
lowpass filter h1 (n) and highpass filter h4 (n) , respectively.
For bandpass filter h2(n) , there are 5 complex zeroes at
co = z and 3 complex zeroes at cv = 0 , and 5 complex zeroes at
cv = 0 and 3 complex zeroes at co = z for bandpass filter h3 (n).
The maximal absolute value of magnitude of aliasing
distortion is 0.1 only in narrow band span of adjacent
subbands, which almost satisfies the request of power
complementary. The maximal fluctuation of group delay is
about 2Ts ( I: is original sample interval), and it is
approximately invariable delay. On the whole, the
four-channel GPFB are perfect reconstruction.
Figure 4 is used to account for convergence performance of
weights. Since the number of weights is too many, we just
Feb. 17-20, 2008 ICACT 2008
select two weight vectors, which are the first column weight
vectors (W1 l, w2,** w5j)T corresponding to the first subband
array and fullband array, respectively. We can note that
subband method exhibits faster convergence behavior than
fullband method. The subband weights converge to steady
state within about 6 iterations, but fullband weights need about
13 iterations. -60 - - -1-- - -l - 4 - + --| --l -
A -4- - + - - 1- - --l-4 - -

Figure 5 shows the mean square error performance of the -70 - - 1--| --l-t - t - t- - I- -I|- - - - t- t - t_ -I1- -I|- -l - - -.

two approaches respectively. We can note weights -80- -

F -I- -1 - 7 - T - r_ -
F -IF -1- X- T
_T -Fr F| -I- - - _T --.
convergence speed of subband arrays is faster than fullband -90
-_-_-_--_-_-__-_T____ ____________

method too. However, the mean square error of the subband -100 ____|__ l - sbband method.
I~~

method (approximately -88.5 dB) is greater than fullband

-110
9c 0 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 590
Angle, of frive (degree)

approach (approximately -90.1 dB) a little in convergence
state, it is because of the performance deterioration resulted
from the GPFB reconstruction error.
The comparison of the beam patterns of fullband and the
subband arrays with GPFB is shown in Figure 6. The subband
amplitude response in this figure is the average of the four
subbands. We can observe that average nulling of four
subbands is much deeper than the fullband array. For the
subband method, the average nulling level approaches -106.3
dB and for the fullband is approximately -94.2 dB. For desired
signal, patterns amplitude response for fullband and subbands
are almost 0 dB ( fullband: -0.028 dB, subband: -0.0038 dB ).
Figure 6. Beam Patterns Amplitude Response
5. Conclusions
An efficient subband method for wideband adaptive array
beamforming with four-channel GPFB has been proposed.
Simulations show that the proposed subband beamformer is
able to suppress interference more efficiently. Moreover,
faster convergence speed of weights is also gained and the
reconstructed output mean square error is almost the same as
fullband adaptive array.

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Figur
_ Mea Squar
°__er__fo__
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