Effect of signal decorrelation in channels of phased antenna arrays on the efficiency of adaptive spatial filtering

Abstract

Effect of signal decorrelation in channels of phased antenna arrays (PAAs) on the efficiency of spatial filtering is analyzed with allowance for the relationship of parameters that characterize the decorrelation and correspond to the correlation coefficients of signals in the PAA channels. The decorrelation is classified as regular and quasi-random. Each factor that causes decorrelation provides an additional eigenvalue of the correlation matrix of input signals for each basic signal eigenvalue. High-order eigenvalues emerge in more complicated systems with several signal sources and several sources of decorrelation. Decorrelation characteristics (number of decorrelation sources and mean correlation coefficients) and the needed number of the degrees of freedom in the system with adaptive spatial filtering can experimentally be estimated. The results of analytical calculation and numerical simulation are in good agreement with the experimental results.