Search

The transverse oscillation (TO) technique can improve the estimation of tissue motion perpendicular to the ultrasound beam direction. TOs can be introduced using plane wave (PW) insonification and bilobed Gaussian apodization (BA) on receive (abbreviated as PWTO). Furthermore, the TO frequency of PWTO can be doubled after a heterodyning demodulation process is performed (abbreviated as PWTO*). This paper is concerned with identifying the limitations of the PWTO technique in the specific context of myocardial deformation imaging with phased arrays and investigating the conditions in which it remains advantageous over traditional focused (FOC) beamforming. For this purpose, several tissue phantoms were simulated using Field II, undergoing a wide range of displacement magnitudes and modes (lateral, axial, and rotational motions). The Cramer-Rao lower bound was used to optimize TO beamforming parameters and theoretically predict the fundamental tracking performance limits associated with the FOC, PWTO, and PWTO* beamforming scenarios. This framework was extended to also predict the performance for BA functions that are windowed by the physical aperture of the transducer, leading to higher lateral oscillations. It was found that windowed BA functions resulted in lower jitter errors compared with traditional BA functions. PWTO* outperformed FOC at all investigated signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) levels but only up to a certain displacement, with the advantage rapidly decreasing when the SNR increased. These results suggest that PWTO* improves lateral tracking performance, but only when interframe displacements remain relatively low. This paper concludes by translating these findings into a clinical environment by suggesting optimal scanner settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The superposition of experimental and analytical data is useful for simulating ultrasonic images of defects in samples containing high levels of coherent structural noise. This technique assumes that the superposition of the response of a defect in a homogeneous medium with that of a heterogeneous, defect-free medium is identical to the response of the same defect embedded in the heterogeneous medium. This implies a single-scattering process. Previous experimental work demonstrated successful use of the technique but only over a limited range of defect signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). However, there was a concern that it might not remain valid at low SNR due to, for example, multiple-scattering effects. This paper shows that this technique provides accurate results over the full range of SNRs of defects where the defect is discernible from image noise. The technique is, therefore, suitable for simulating any inspection where ultrasonic imaging is an appropriate method of nondestructive evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ever increasing demands for mobile network access have resulted in a significant increase in bandwidth usage. By improving the system spectral efficiency, multi-way relay networks (MWRNs) provide promising approaches to address this challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel linear beamforming design, namely partial zero-forcing (PZF), for MWRNs with a multiple-input-multiple-output relay. Compared to zero-forcing (ZF), PZF relaxes the constraints on the relay beamforming matrix such that only partial user-interference, instead of all, is canceled at the relay. The users eliminate the remaining interferences through self-interference and successive interference cancellation. A sum-rate maximization problem is formulated and solved to exploit the extra degrees-of-freedom resulted from PZF. Simulation results show that the proposed PZF relay beamforming design achieves significantly higher network sum-rates than the existing linear beamforming designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the impact of mutual coupling between the antenna array elements on the performance of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar with colored waveform transmission (collocated coherent MIMO system). Simulation results confirm the decrease in system performance when antenna mutual coupling is taken into account. A dedicated scan-dependent calibration technique is proposed for elimination of the coupling effect. The experiments with a real X-band antenna array validate the coupling analysis and the calibration procedure presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we investigate the secure relay beamforming problem for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) in an amplify-and-forward (AF) two-way relay network. We consider scenarios that the eavesdropper's channel state information (CSI) is and is not available. When the eavesdropper's CSI is available, our objective is to maximize the achievable secrecy sum rate under transmit power constraint and energy harvesting constraint. Since the optimization problem is nonconvex, we derive its performance upper bound, which requires 2-D search, where a semidefinite programming is solved in each step. We also propose an upper bound-based rank-one solution by employing the Gaussian randomization method. To reduce computational complexity, we transform the optimization problem into a difference-of-convex programming and propose a sequential parametric convex approximation (SPCA)-based iterative algorithm to find a locally optimal solution. Furthermore, we also propose a zero-forcing (ZF)-based suboptimal solution. Simulation results demonstrate that the upper bound-based rank-one solution archives the performance almost the same as the upper bound that has high computational complexity. The low-complexity SPCA-based locally optimal solution performs close to the upper bound. The ZF-based suboptimal solution has the lowest computational complexity among the proposed solutions. When the eavesdropper's CSI is not available, we propose an artificial noise-aided secure relay beamforming scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Base station cooperation can exploit knowledge of the users' channel state information (CSI) at the transmitters to manage co-channel interference. Users have to feedback CSI of the desired and interfering channels using finite-bandwidth backhaul links. Existing codebook designs for single-cell limited feedback can be used for multicell cooperation by partitioning the available feedback resources between the multiple channels. In this paper, a new feedback-bit allocation strategy is proposed, as a function of the delays in the communication links and received signal strengths in the downlink. Channel temporal correlation is modeled as a function of delay using the Gauss-Markov model. Closed-form expressions for bit partitions are derived to allocate more bits to quantize the stronger channels with smaller delays and fewer bits to weaker channels with larger delays, assuming random vector quantization. Cellular network simulations are used to show that the algorithm presented in the paper yields higher sum-rates than the equal-bit allocation technique. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently, an adaptive intercell interference (ICI) mitigation technique has been proposed for downlink cellular systems as a means to increase throughput with low system complexity. However, in the prior work, the issue of intercell user scheduling has not been considered. In this paper, we study multiple-input–single-output (MISO) downlink cellular systems that jointly design adaptive ICI cancelation (ICIC) and intercell user scheduling assuming that partial channel state information (CSI) is shared among base stations (BSs). Since the optimal solution would require high complexity, we investigate a new low-complexity algorithm that selects the best users and their beamforming strategies in terms of maximizing the weighted sum rate (WSR). To this end, we first develop a simple threshold criterion for each user to decide the preferred beamforming strategy based on the derivation of the expected signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). Then, according to users' feedback about their decisions, a successive user and beamforming selection algorithm is performed at the BSs. From simulation results, we show that, combined with proportional fair scheduling, the proposed scheme provides excellent throughput performance with very low computational complexity and the amount of inter-BS CSI exchange. Furthermore, we discuss an extension of the proposed scheme to limited feedback systems and observe that our algorithm also provides similar advantages over conventional schemes with quantized feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we consider the linearly constrained distributed adaptive node-specific signal estimation (LC-DANSE) algorithm, which generates a node-specific linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) beamformer, i.e., with node-specific linear constraints, at each node of a wireless sensor network. The algorithm significantly reduces the number of signals that are exchanged between nodes, and yet obtains the optimal LCMV beamformers as if each node has access to all the signals in the network. We consider the case where all the steering vectors are known, as well as the blind beamforming case where the steering vectors are not known. We formally prove convergence and optimality for both versions of the LC-DANSE algorithm. We also consider the case where nodes update their local beamformers simultaneously instead of sequentially, and we demonstrate by means of simulations that applying a relaxation is often required to obtain a converging algorithm in this case. We also provide simulation results that demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm in a realistic speech enhancement scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we consider the problem of direction of arrival (DOA) estimation in the presence of sensor gain-phase errors. Under some mild assumptions, we propose a new DOA estimation method based on the eigendecomposition of a covariance matrix which is constructed by the dot product of the array output vector and its conjugate. By combining the new DOA estimation with the conventional gain-phase error estimation, a method is proposed to simultaneously estimate the DOA and gain-phase errors without joint iteration. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed method performs independently of phase errors and thus behaves well regardless of phase errors. However, the resolution capability of the proposed method is lower than that of the method in [A. J. Weiss and B. Friedlander, “Eigenstructure methods for direction finding with sensor gain and phase uncertainties,” Circuits Systems Signal Process., vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 271–300, 1990], named as the WF method. In order to improve the resolution capability and maintain phase error independence, a combined strategy is developed using the proposed and WF methods. The advantage of the proposed methods is that they are independent of phase errors, leading to the cancellation of phase error calibration during the operation life of an array. Moreover, the proposed methods avoid the problem of suboptimal convergence which occurs in the WF method. The drawbacks of the proposed methods are their high computational complexity and their requirement for the condition that at least two signals are spatially far from each other, and they are not applicable to a linear array. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Source localization especially direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation using sensor arrays is of considerable interest in both classical array signal processing and radar applications. Most radar systems are designed under the line-of-sight (LOS) assumption with multipath echos treated as undesired clutter noise. Strong multipath, therefore, has a negative impact on the resolution of the radar systems and their ability in accurately localizing the target. Rather than treating multipath as a detrimental effect, the paper introduces time reversal (TR) to exploit spatial/multipath diversity in improving the capability of the existing localization algorithms. In particular, we design TR based range and DOA estimators that adaptively adjust the probing radar waveforms to the multipath characteristics of the environment. The benefits of the spatial/multipath diversity in the proposed DOA and range estimators are quantified by deriving the respective Cramér–Rao bounds (CRB) and comparing them with the analytical expressions for their conventional counterparts. Numerical simulations also confirm the benefit of applying TR to source localization algorithms especially at low signal-to-noise ratios below -5 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Base station cooperation improves the sum-rates that can be achieved in cellular systems. Conventional cooperation techniques require sharing large amounts of information over finite-capacity backhaul links and assume that base stations have full channel state information (CSI) of all the active users in the system. In this paper, a new limited feedback strategy is proposed for multicell beamforming where cooperation is restricted to sharing only the CSI of active users among base stations. The system setup considered is a linear array of cells based on the “soft hand-off model,” where each cell contains single-antenna users and multi-antenna base stations. Beamforming vectors are designed using a generalized eigenvector approach to maximize the sum-rate in a single-interferer scenario, at high signal to noise ratio. Users are assumed to feedback quantized CSI of the desired and interfering channels using a finite-bandwidth feedback link. An upper bound on the mean loss in sum rate due to random vector quantization is derived. A new feedback-bit allocation strategy, to partition the available bits between the desired and interfering channels, is developed to reduce the mean loss in sum-rate due to quantization for the soft hand-off model. The proposed feedback-bit partitioning algorithm is shown, using simulations, to yield sum-rates close to the those obtained using full CSI at base station. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undersea warfare relies heavily on acoustic means to detect a submerged vessel. The frequency of the acoustic signal radiated by the vessel is typically very low, thus requires a large array aperture to achieve acceptable angular resolution. In this paper, we present a novel approach for low-frequency direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation using miniature circular vector-sensor array mounted on the perimeter of a cylinder. Under this approach, we conduct beamforming using decomposition in the acoustic mode domain rather than frequency domain, to avoid the long Wavelength constraints. We first introduce a multi-layer acoustic gradient scattering model to provide a guideline and performance predication tool for the mode beamformer design and algorithm. We optimize the array gain and frequency response with this model. We further develop the adaptive DOA estimation algorithm based on this model. We formulate the Capon spectra of the mode beamformer which is independent of the frequency band after the mode decomposition. Numerical simulations are conducted to quantify the performance and evaluate the theoretical results developed in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a beamforming system, mutual coupling among the elements can significantly degrade the system performance. However, the mutual coupling effects can be compensated if an accurate model of mutual coupling is available. This paper utilizes a mutual coupling matrix model to compensate mutual coupling in the beamforming of a uniform circular array. In addition, a circular array of dipoles was built and measurements were performed. The predictions are compared with measurements, and verified with results from full-wave simulations [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a new compounded direct pixel beamforming (CDPB) method is presented to remove blurring artifacts introduced by ultrasound scan conversion. In CDPB, receive focusing is directly performed on each display pixel in Cartesian coordinates using the raw RF data from adjacent transmit firings so that artifacts from the scan conversion can be removed. In addition, the energy variations resulting from the distance between the transmit scanline and display pixel are compensated by utilizing the gain factor obtained from the ultrasound beam pattern. The proposed CDPB method was evaluated using simulation and in vivo liver data acquired by a commercial ultrasound machine equipped with a research package. The experimental results showed that the proposed CDPB method improved the information entropy contrast (IEC) by 23.6% compared with the conventional scan conversion method and it reduced the blocking artifacts factor (BAF) by 16.4% over the direct pixel-based focusing method. These results indicate the proposed new direct pixel beamforming method could be used to enhance image quality in medical ultrasound imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]