Development of a Single-Channel Direction Finding Algorithm

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dc.contributor.authorHarter, Nathan M.en
dc.contributor.committeechairBuehrer, R. Michaelen
dc.contributor.committeememberReed, Jeffrey H.en
dc.contributor.committeememberTranter, William H.en
dc.contributor.departmentElectrical and Computer Engineeringen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:34:26Zen
dc.date.adate2007-05-04en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:34:26Zen
dc.date.issued2007-04-13en
dc.date.rdate2007-05-04en
dc.date.sdate2007-04-27en
dc.description.abstractA radio direction finding (DF) system uses a multiple-element antenna array coupled with one or more receivers to estimate the direction-of-arrival (DOA) of a targeted emitter using characteristics of the signal received at each of the antennas in the array. In general, DF systems can be classified both by the number of receivers employed as well as which characteristics of the received signal are used to produce the DOA estimate, such as the signal's amplitude, phase, or time of arrival. This work centers on the development and implementation of a novel single-channel direction finding system based on the differential phase of the target signal received by a uniform circular antenna array with a commutative switch. The algorithm is called the PLL DF Method and differs from older single-channel DF techniques in that it is a digital algorithm intended for implementation on a software-defined radio (SDR) platform with a custom-designed antenna array and RF switching network. It uses a bank of parallel software PLLs to estimate the phase of the signal received at each element of the multi-antenna array. Theses estimated phase values are then fed to a specialized signal processing block that estimates the DOA of the received signal. This thesis presents the details of the initial version of the PLL algorithm which was used to produce a proof-of-concept system with an eight-element circular array. It then discusses various technical challenges uncovered in the initial implementation and presents numerous enhancements to the algorithm to overcome these challenges, such as a modification to the PLL model to offer increased estimator robustness in the presence of a frequency offset between the transmitter and receiver, revisions of the software implementation to reduce the algorithm's processing requirements, and the adaptation of the DF algorithm for use with a 16-element circular array. The performance of the algorithm with these modifications under various conditions are simulated to investigate their impact on the DOA estimation process and the results of their implementation on an SDR are considered.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-04272007-114307en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04272007-114307/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/31973en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartNHarter_SingleChannelDF.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectBeamformingen
dc.subjectSignal Processingen
dc.subjectDirection Findingen
dc.subjectWireless Communicationsen
dc.titleDevelopment of a Single-Channel Direction Finding Algorithmen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineElectrical and Computer Engineeringen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen
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