Simulation of Direction Finding Algorithm and Estimation of Losses in an RWR System
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 3, ISSUE 8, AUGUST 2014 ISSN 2277-8616 Simulation Of Direction Finding Algorithm And Estimation Of Losses In An RWR System Gowri Satheesh, Athena Karumbaya Abstract: Radar warning receiver (RWR) systems are used to detect radio emissions of radar systems. Its primary purpose is to issue a warning when a radar signal that might be a threat is detected, and subsequently, evade it. RWR systems can be installed in all kind of airborne, sea-based, and ground- based assets and is used for identifying, avoiding, evading or engaging threats. This paper focuses mainly on airborne military RWR systems. The RWR usually has a visual display somewhere prominent in the cockpit to provide visual cues to the pilot regarding the position of the incoming threat. A suitable method of direction finding is required to detect the position of the threat. In this paper, the design of the radio direction finder is based on amplitude comparison to find the angle of arrival (AOA) of the received signal by four antennas circularly distributed. The characteristics of the signal (maximum amplitude and frequency) are specified to provide the identification of the source in addition to the direction. The AOA is determined by taking the ratio of the signal amplitudes between two adjacent antennas due to their associated AOA over 360 degrees direction. This system operates in a wide band of frequency (over 2-18GHz). Software simulations are carried out to validate and find the DF accuracies of the algorithms under various conditions. The effect of external Gaussian white noise, cable losses and phase losses are simulated and studied. Index Terms: RWR, direction finding, Gaussian noise, amplitude comparison, phase loss, cable loss,radar,AOA. ———————————————————— 1 INTRODUCTION 2 SYSTEM DESIGN With the development of radar technology and the The type of antenna proposed to be used in such system must complication of target background, more and more information be frequency independent antenna such as cavity backed o which is not range but also angle need be known to target in spiral antenna, with a half power beam width of 75 . Each an- order to track and orientate accurately. Passive radio direction tenna is followed by a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) with high finders (DF) are used for finding the angle of arrival of the stability over the frequency band (2-18) GHz. All amplifiers received signal over the whole (360o) direction. This facility must be identical in all lines. Each amplifier is followed by a makes these systems important in military and civilian detector to detect the envelop signals. The analog to digital applications. To simplify the amplitude comparison analysis, converter is used to convert the analog values of signals to the ratio between signal levels which are fed from receiving digital forms to be fed to the signal processing unit which is antennas of the proposed DF is used. This method makes the used to calculate the angle of arrival of the signal. There exists system simple in analysis and implementation and gives a a Pulse Descriptor Word (PDW) Generator block. The purpose good accuracy and resolution over a wide range of of this block is to extract the properties of the received signal, frequencies. The proposed system operates over a wide band like frequency, pulse amplitude, pulse width etc. Then pulse of frequencies and covers the whole (360o). In this system, the amplitudes of the received signal from each receiver channel amplitude comparison is applied between each two adjacent are input to the amplitude comparison block [1]. The SPU also antennas to select the largest and next to the largest has two memories: one is for database including the amplitude to provide the AOA of the received signal. In real specifications of the signals and their associated sources to radio communication channels, it is often found that the provide the source identification. The other is for lookup tables dominant source of interference contains a significant noise including the pre calculated values of the gain for each o component that is impulsive, indicating the probability of large antenna at their associated angles over 360 direction. The interference levels. final part of the system is the console which displays the results. 3 THEORY A. Gaussian Field Pattern It can be assumed that the antennas type is circular aperture with Gaussian current distribution and has Gaussian field ______________________________ patterns. The field pattern of the antenna assembly system is shown in Figure 1 GowriSatheesh is currently pursuing an undergraduate program in electronics and communication engineering in Vellore Institute of Technology, PH-919994820988. E-mail: [email protected] Athena Karumbaya is currently pursuing an undergraduate program in electronics and communication engineering in Vellore Institute of Technology, PH-919597432121. E-mail: [email protected] Fig. 1: Antenna Gain Pattern 29 IJSTR©2014 www.ijstr.org INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 3, ISSUE 8, AUGUST 2014 ISSN 2277-8616 Receiver Boresight Direction (in deg) amplitudes are taken into consideration to be used in the DF Forward Left (FL) 45 algorithm. The direction finding system considered consists of Forward Right (FR) 135 a circular array of 4 equally spaced antennas. It is assumed Aft Left (AL) 225 that there is a single transmitter and the signal arrives at the antenna at the angle of arrival. Aft Right (AR) 315 The received signal is given by TABLE I: Antenna boresights relative aircraft north 푠푡 = 퐴푅푡 휃 − 휃푖 + 푛푖 (2) When a signal strikes the antenna assembly, the individual Where θ and A represents AOA and amplitude of the incoming channel amplitude is measured as well as the difference signal respectively. Ri denotes the gain pattern of the antenna, between each two adjacent antennas to allow the selection of th ii is the angular position of the i (i=1,2,3,4,) antenna and ni is the channels having the largest and next to the largest the receiver noise. The gain pattern of the antenna is given by amplitude. Amplitude comparison RWRs typically use broad- band cavity-backed spiral antenna elements whose patterns ∅ −푘( )2 can be approximated by Gaussian-shaped beams. Gaussian- 퐺 ∅ = 휃 ∅퐵 /2 (3) shaped beams have the property that the logarithmic output ratio slope in dB is linear as a function of angle of arrival. Where ∅ is the angle of incoming signal, and ∅퐵is the antenna Thus, a digital look-up table can be used to determine the half-power beamwidth [3]. The received signal is calculated for angle directly. Each antenna has 180 coverage [2]. The all the four antennas. The two antennas receiving the boresight (pointing direction) of the antenna in each receiver is maximum amplitude are deter-mined and the ratio of the two directed relative to the aircraft pointing direction, according to amplitudes is found. A lookup table of gain ratios of adjacent Table I. Antenna gain is approximated by the following formula antennas is made for angles at an interval of 5.625. The amplitude comparison algorithm relies on the fact that ratio of 훼 2 퐺푑푏 훼 = 퐺푚푎푥푑퐵 − 3( ) (1) the amplitudes received by the antennas is equal to the ratio 휃/2 of the gains corresponding to the two antennas. The amplitude ratio found is compared with the gain ratio lookup table until a B. Gaussian White Noise match is found. The corresponding angle is displayed. A white noise signal is constituted by a set of independent and identically distributed random variables. In a discrete sense, the white noise signal constitutes a series of samples that are 5 LOSSES independent and generated from the same PDF. The PDF can A few other losses have been taken into account when a be described mathematically for a Gaussian distribution. White signal is received. A suitable correction factor must be devised Gaussian noise can be generated using 'randn' function in to minimize the effect of these losses. Matlab that generates random numbers that follow a Gaussian distribution. The algorithm implements the discrete Fourier A. Cable Loss transform to transform data from time into the frequency A coaxial cable carries radio frequency (RF) energy be-tween domain. Via the inverse Fourier transform we filter out the the antennas and the radio equipment. An antenna cable noise. The filtered signal is plotted. The signal is now ready for introduces signal loss in the antenna system for both the amplitude comparison Figure 5 is a possible Gaussian transmitter and the receiver. Loss of signal strength is directly distribution, where the mean (µ ) is 0 and standard deviation (α proportional to the length of the cable segment. As signal ) is 1. This type of probability distribution curve is called the frequency increases, loss increases. The loss is called Standard Normal Distribution. attenuation, which can be measured in decibels per meter. Choosing the appropriate coaxial cable is vital to the success of any antenna installation. If the correct cable is not used, signal loss will be high and transmit/receive performance poor. Important factors to be considered are: 1. Frequency- The higher the frequency, the higher the signal loss over any given cable run distance. 2. Length of cable run- The longer the cable run, the more signal lost. 3. Cable attenuation- The better quality solid core cables deliver lower signal loss Fig. 2: Gaussian distribution curve The transmission losses due to the cables used in the antenna assembly are calculated using the formula given below. The cable considered is an Ultra Low Loss (solid inner conductor) 4 AMPLITUDE COMPARISON ALGORITHM SHF3M cable, manufactured by RADIALL The amplitudes from two antennas, which are directed to the emitter, are used instead of using all of the received 퐴푡푡푒푛푢푎푡푖표푛 푑퐵/푚 = 0.365/ 퐹 (4) amplitudes.