Passive listening pulse adaptive sidelobe canceller

Abstract

The present invention relates to methods and systems for electronic countermeasures, and particularly to methods and systems for electronic countermeasures that employ radar jamming devices.

Claims

1. A method for filtering out or cancelling at least one jamming signal sourced from a jammer aligned with or directed to a radar's sidelobes, the method comprising the steps of: calculating at least one adaptive sidelobe canceller weight on a coherent processing interval (CPI) basis during at least one receive only or passive listening pulse at the radar's sidelobes, wherein the step of calculating the at least one adaptive sidelobe canceller weight is performed by a field programmable gate array and includes the step of performing a 33 matrix inversion and applying said at least one adaptive sidelobe canceller weight to subsequent active pulses of the same CPI at the radar's sidelobes to filter out or cancel said jamming signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of calculating is performed in real time.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of calculating further comprises the step of basing the adaptive sidelobe canceller weight calculation on the current state of the jamming signal inclusive of the actual angle of the jammer relative to the receive only pulse.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of calculating further comprises the step of independently calculating said at least one adaptive sidelobe canceller weight for each of three sum beams, wherein said sum beams comprise an upper, middle and lower sum beam, to further improve beam to beam angle variations relative to the jammer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of calculating further comprises the step of performing sidelobe canceller weight calculation using the following equation:
W.sub.slc=R.sub.aa.sup.1R.sub.as where R.sub.aa=X.sub.a.sup.TX.sub.a* and R.sub.as=X.sub.a.sup.TY.sub.s* where X.sub.a is a matrix of auxiliary channel data and Y.sub.s is a matrix of sum channel data, .sup.1 is the inverse matrix, .sup.T is the transpose matrix, and * is the complex conjugate matrix.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of calculating further comprises the step of performing a matrix inversion calculation using the following equations: Given the 33 matrix M: $M=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}a& b& c\\ d& e& f\\ g& h& i\end{array}\right]M^T=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}a& d& g\\ b& e& h\\ c& f& i\end{array}\right]$ The inversion algorithm calculates M.sup.1: $M^{-1}=\frac{1}{\det \left(M\right)}\left(\mathrm{adj}\left(M\right)\right)$ $\det \left(M\right)=a\left(\mathrm{ci}-\mathrm{fh}\right)+b\left(\mathrm{fg}-\mathrm{di}\right)+c\left(\mathrm{dh}-\mathrm{eg}\right)$ $\mathrm{adj}\left(M\right)=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}\mathrm{ei}-\mathrm{fh}& \mathrm{ch}-\mathrm{bi}& \mathrm{bf}-\mathrm{ce}\\ \mathrm{fg}-\mathrm{di}& \mathrm{ai}-\mathrm{cg}& \mathrm{cd}-\mathrm{af}\\ \mathrm{dh}-\mathrm{eg}& \mathrm{bg}-\mathrm{ah}& \mathrm{ac}-\mathrm{bd}\end{array}\right]$ where adj. is the adjoint, det is the determinant, and a-i represent the elements of matrix M.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of applying further comprises the step of applying the calculated sidelobe canceller weight W.sub.slc to a real-time input data stream comprising auxiliary and main beam channels to filter out, or cancel the jamming signal by performing complex multiplication with the calculated sidelobe canceller weight W.sub.slc, auxiliary channel data (AUX) and its associated fast time taps (AUX+ and AUX), and applying results of the complex multiplication with respective sum and difference channel data using complex addition.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing program code, wherein said program code is a hardware description language, comprising: program code for calculating at least one adaptive sidelobe canceller weight on a coherent processing interval (CPI) basis during at least one receive only or passive listening pulse at a radar's sidelobes, wherein the program code for calculating the at least one adaptive sidelobe canceller weight, applies the following equation:
W.sub.slc=R.sub.aa.sup.1R.sub.as where R.sub.aa=X.sub.a.sup.TX.sub.a* and R.sub.as=X.sub.a.sup.TY.sub.s* where X.sub.a is a matrix of auxiliary channel data and Y.sub.s is a matrix of sum channel data, .sup.1 is the inverse matrix, .sup.T is the transpose matrix, and * is the complex conjugate matrix program code for applying said at least one adaptive sidelobe canceller weight to subsequent active pulses of the same CPI at the radar's sidelobes to filter out or cancel a jamming signal.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the program code for calculating further comprises program code for calculating said at least one adaptive sidelobe canceller weight in real time.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising program code for basing the adaptive sidelobe canceller weight calculation on the current state of the jamming signal inclusive of the actual angle of the jammer relative to the receive only pulse.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the program code for calculating further comprises program code for independently calculating said at least one adaptive sidelobe canceller weight for each of three sum beams, wherein said sum beams comprise an upper, middle and lower sum beam, to further improve beam to beam angle variations relative to the jammer.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising program code for performing a matrix inversion calculation using the following equations: Given the 33 matrix M: $M=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}a& b& c\\ d& e& f\\ g& h& i\end{array}\right]M^T=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}a& d& g\\ b& e& h\\ c& f& i\end{array}\right]$ The inversion algorithm calculates M.sup.1: $M^{-1}=\frac{1}{\det \left(M\right)}\left(\mathrm{adj}\left(M\right)\right)$ $\det \left(M\right)=a\left(\mathrm{ci}-\mathrm{fh}\right)+b\left(\mathrm{fg}-\mathrm{di}\right)+c\left(\mathrm{dh}-\mathrm{eg}\right)$ $\mathrm{adj}\left(M\right)=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}\mathrm{ei}-\mathrm{fh}& \mathrm{ch}-\mathrm{bi}& \mathrm{bf}-\mathrm{ce}\\ \mathrm{fg}-\mathrm{di}& \mathrm{ai}-\mathrm{cg}& \mathrm{cd}-\mathrm{af}\\ \mathrm{dh}-\mathrm{eg}& \mathrm{bg}-\mathrm{ah}& \mathrm{ac}-\mathrm{bd}\end{array}\right]$ where adj. is the adjoint, det is the determinant, and a-i represent the elements of matrix M.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising program code for applying the calculated sidelobe canceller weight W.sub.slc to a real-time input data stream comprising auxiliary and main beam channels to filter out, or cancel the jamming signal by performing complex multiplication with the calculated sidelobe canceller weight W.sub.slc, auxiliary channel data (AUX) and its associated fast time taps (AUX+ and AUX), and applying results of the complex multiplication with respective sum and difference channel data using complex addition.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The present invention will be more fully understood and appreciated by reading the following Detailed Description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of weight calculation, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(3) FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of the INV box shown in FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(4) FIG. 3 is a further diagrammatic illustration of weight application, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(5) According to an embodiment are methods and architectures for real-time calculation of adaptive sidelobe canceller weights on a coherent processing interval (CPI) basis during a passive listening (receive only) pulse, with weights to be applied for subsequent pulses of that same CPI. The Passive Listening Pulse Adaptive Sidelobe Canceller Implementation provides several distinct advantages over other known methods of sidelobe cancellation.

(6) A method for sidelobe cancellation can comprise, for example, detection in which each dwell requires a passive listening pulse when sidelobe cancellation is enabled (both search and track dwells). According to an embodiment, VHDL (VHSIC hardware description language) is then used to calculate the weights by performing the correlation and matrix inversion operation, and the VHDL then applies the weights to the data stream. The weights can be applied, for example, using a filter residing in the VHDL.

(7) According to an embodiment, the adaptive canceller weights are calculated during the first few pulses of the CPI. These pulses are receive only (or passive listening) pulses. This provides the adaptive canceller with an improved estimate of the jammer cancellation weights because the weight calculations are based on the current state of the jammer inclusive of the actual angle of the jammer relative to the receive beam.

(8) According to another embodiment, the weights are calculated independently for each of the three (upper, middle, lower) sum beams to further improve beam to beam angle variations relative to the jammer. The weights are then immediately applied during the remaining active pulses of the CPI to filter out (or cancel) the signal sourced by the jammer to mitigate the impact of the jammer on radar system performance. An example of Weight Calculation is depicted in FIG. 1, and an example of Weight Application is depicted in FIG. 3, although other embodiments are possible.

(9) According to yet another embodiment, the methods or systems described herein use a matrix inversion calculation required for weight calculation. Inversion is performed using the following equations: Given the 33 matrix M:

(10) $M=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}a& b& c\\ d& e& f\\ g& h& i\end{array}\right]M^T=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}a& d& g\\ b& e& h\\ c& f& i\end{array}\right]$ The inversion algorithm calculates M.sup.1:

(11) $M^{-1}=\frac{1}{\det \left(M\right)}\left(\mathrm{adj}\left(M\right)\right)$$\det \left(M\right)=a\left(\mathrm{ci}-\mathrm{fh}\right)+b\left(\mathrm{fg}-\mathrm{di}\right)+c\left(\mathrm{dh}-\mathrm{eg}\right)$$\mathrm{adj}\left(M\right)=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}\mathrm{ei}-\mathrm{fh}& \mathrm{ch}-\mathrm{bi}& \mathrm{bf}-\mathrm{ce}\\ \mathrm{fg}-\mathrm{di}& \mathrm{ai}-\mathrm{cg}& \mathrm{cd}-\mathrm{af}\\ \mathrm{dh}-\mathrm{eg}& \mathrm{bg}-\mathrm{ah}& \mathrm{ac}-\mathrm{bd}\end{array}\right]$
where adj. is the adjoint, det is the determinant, and a-i represent the elements of matrix M.

(12) FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration showing the implementation of the weight calculation shown in the equations above, according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, there are two inputs X.sub.a and Y.sub.s. X.sub.a is a matrix containing AUX data and its associated fast time tap data (AUX+t, AUXt). Y.sub.s is a matrix containing data for each of the three (upper, middle, lower) beams. The upper box 20 shows the equation for calculating the covariance of matrix X.sub.a, and the result is labeled R.sub.aa. The inverse of that matrix is calculated next in box 20, giving R.sub.aa.sup.1. The lower box 30 shows the equation for calculating the cross-variance between X.sub.a and Y.sub.s. The result of the cross-variance calculation, R.sub.as, is multiplied with the inverse covariance calculation, R.sub.aa.sup.1 at 40 to give the sidelobe canceller weights, W.sub.SLC.

(13) FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of the INV box 20 shown in FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 takes R.sub.aa as an input. The first step is to calculate the adjoint matrix at 22. From the adjoint matrix, the determinant can be calculated at 24. The result of the determinant calculation is used as an address into a Look-Up-Table to obtain the result of 1/determinant at 26. Finally, the adjoint matrix is multiplied by 1/determinant, resulting in R.sub.aa.sup.1, the inverse covariance matrix at 28. The formulas for calculating the adjoint matrix and determinant are shown in the inversion equations shown above.

(14) Turning to FIG. 3, the complex weights generated by the operations performed in FIGS. 1-2 are passed into the Weight Write function/module 50 which temporarily stores the weights in a Dual Port RAM (DPRAM) 55. The AUX data channel and its associated fast time tap data (AUX+t, Auxt) as well as the sum and difference channels are temporarily stored in first-in-first-out (FIFO) memories 60/60 to delay and align the data. The weights and associated Aux data are read from their respective memories and a complex multiply is performed (CPLX MAC module) 65. The results of that operation are then combined with their respective sum and difference channel data using a complex add (+) 70. All of these steps are orchestrated by the Control block/module shown in the figure.

(15) While various embodiments have been described and illustrated herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision a variety of other means and/or structures for performing the function and/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantages described herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications is deemed to be within the scope of the embodiments described herein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations described herein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters, dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon the specific application or applications for which the teachings is/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specific embodiments described herein. It is, therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presented by way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereto, embodiments may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individual feature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein. In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent, is included within the scope of the present disclosure.

(16) The above-described embodiments of the described subject matter can be implemented in any of numerous ways. For example, some embodiments may be implemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof. When any aspect of an embodiment is implemented at least in part in software, the software code can be executed on any suitable processor or collection of processors, whether provided in a single device or computer or distributed among multiple devices/computers.

(17) A module, as may be used herein, can include, among other things, the identification of specific functionality represented by specific computer software code of a software program. A software program may contain code representing one or more modules, and the code representing a particular module can be represented by consecutive or non-consecutive lines of code.

(18) As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied/implemented as a computer system, method or computer program product. The computer program product can have a computer processor or neural network, for example, that carries out the instructions of a computer program. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, and entirely firmware embodiment, or an embodiment combining software/firmware and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a circuit, module, system, or an engine. Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

(19) Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction performance system, apparatus, or device.

(20) The program code may perform entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, completely or partly on the thermal printer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).

(21) One or more of the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and/or operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each Figure may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted/illustrated in the Figures may occur out of the order noted in the figures, substantially concurrently, or in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that the functionality shown in the Figures can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

(22) The claims should not be read as limited to the described order or elements unless stated to that effect. It should be understood that various changes in form and detail may be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. All embodiments that come within the spirit and scope of the following claims and equivalents thereto are claimed.