Performance of Narrowband Signal Detection under Correlated Rayleigh Fading Based on Synthetic Array

Abstract

The performance of a single moving antenna receiver in detecting a narrowband signal under correlated Rayleigh fading is considered. The spatial motion of the antenna during signal capture provides a realization of a synthetic antenna array. As shown, there is a net processing gain obtained by using a synthetic antenna array compared to the equivalent static antenna in Rayleigh fading environments subject to constant processing time. The performance analysis is based on average Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) metrics for design parameters of probability of detection(Pd)and probability of false alarm(Pfa). An optimum detector based on Estimator-Correlator (EC) is developed, and its performance is compared with that of suboptimal Equal-Gain (EG) combiner in different channel correlation scenarios. It is shown that in moderate channel correlation scenarios the detection performance of EC and EG is identical. The sensitivity of the proposed method to knowledge of motion parameters is also investigated. An extensive set of measurements based on CDMA-2000 pilot signals using the static antenna and synthetic array are used to experimentally verify these theoretical findings.