Eigenspace-based beamforming technique for multipath coherent signals reception

A novel eigenspace-based beamforming technique is presented for receiving multipath coherent signals in the presence of uncorrelated interferences. Firstly, a subaperture minimum variance distortionless response beamformer based on spatial smoothing is applied, and then its weights are projected onto the signal-plus-interference subspace of the full-aperture data covariance matrix to obtain the multipath signals combination beamformer. Theoretical analysis has proved the proposed method can effectively get the coherent signals combination gain without reducing array aperture. Due to the employment of eigenspace, our method requires less prior information and converges faster than existing solutions. Simulation examples illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.