The vulnerability of GPS to interference has been a major concern for both military and civilian applications, including small UAVs. Various signal processing techniques have been developed to improve the reliability of GPS receivers against different types of interference. Among these techniques, null steering is recognized as an effective method to protect GPS against both narrowband and broadband interference. However, due to the requirement of multiple antenna channels, it has mainly been implemented for large platform applications. This thesis examines the suitability of null steering techniques for small UAV applications and determines the practically achievable anti-jamming ability by implementing a two-element miniaturized adaptive antenna array. The adaptive antenna array is tested against a 2MHz broadband jamming signal under both laboratory testing conditions and a real jamming environment. Approximately 40dB anti-jamming range was achieved in the laboratory testing conditions. 38dB and 42dB were obtained in a real jamming environment with different antenna configuration. The likely performance limitations and possible further performance enhancements are also outlined in this thesis. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1363608 / Thesis (M.Eng.Sc.) - University of Adelaide, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2008

There has been great interest in antenna array processing (diversity, beamforming, null steering, and spatial multiplexing) to enhance the received signal quality and the capacity of wireless communications systems. However, in order to properly exploit the characteristics of different array processing techniques, understanding trade-offs among different techniques and parametric investigation, which offers an insight as to what parameters determine system performance under different situations is necessary. In this study, we present analytical framework which can facilitate the performance analysis of systems with antenna array. Five original contributions to the performance analysis of antenna array processing are presented in this study. First, we present theoretical outage probability of a system equipped with an array which suppresses a few dominant interering signals in TDMA cellular networks when the fading statistics of interfering signals are independent but non-identically distributed. Most of the related previous works assumed either independent and identically distributed fading statistics among cochannel interferences (CCI) or Rayleigh fading when CCI signals are subject to i.n.d. fading statistics. Secondly, the performance of multi-branch predetection equal gain combiner for different modulation techniques in equally correlated Nakagami-m fading is presented through analytical analysis. Specifically, the characteristic function (CHF) and the moment generating function (MGF) of EGC output with correlated inputs are derived and used to evaluate the average symbol error probability (ASEP) and the outage probability performance, respectively. Thirdly, we derived analytical expression which can be used to analyze the performance of different types of diversity techniques in equally correlated Nakagami-m or Rice fading channels. Fourthly, asymptotic analysis on different types of diversity combiners in generalized fading channels is presented in a unifying way. Finally, we investigate and present the impact of transmit diversity at handsets on the reverse link DS/CDMA systems in terms of capacity and coverage over generalized fading channels through analytical approaches. Then, we validate the analytical results with simulation results and investigate practical issues which are hard to capture through analytical analysis using system level simulator we developed. Although we have mainly focused on applying the analytical framework we have derived in this work to the performance analysis of physical layer algorithms such as spatial diversity and adaptive null steering, the framework can be extended to assist the analysis and design of wireless communication systems such as, to name a few, distributed multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system in cooperative wireless networks, multipath routing protocol analysis in wireless fading channels, and antenna selection problems in MIMO system. / Ph. D.

Radio frequency spectrum is a scarce natural resource that is utilized for many services including surveillance, navigation, communication, and broadcasting. Recent years have seen tremendous growth in use of spectrum especially by commercial cellular operators. As a result, cellular operators are experiencing a shortage of radio spectrum to meet bandwidth demands of users. Spectrum sharing is a promising approach to solve the problem of spectrum congestion as it allows cellular operators access to more spectrum in order to satisfy the ever growing bandwidth demands of commercial users. The US spectrum regulatory bodies are working on an initiative to share 150 MHz of spectrum, held by federal agencies, in the 3.5 GHz band with commercial wireless operators. This band is primarily used by radar systems that are critical to national defense. Field tests have shown that spectrum sharing between radars and communication systems require large separation distance in order to protect them from harmful interference. Thus, novel methods are required to ensure spectrum sharing between the two systems without the need of large protection distances. In order to efficiently share spectrum between radars and communication systems at the same time and in the same geographical area, a novel method is proposed that transforms radar signal in such a way that it does not interfere with communication systems. This is accomplished by projecting the radar signal onto null space of the wireless channel between radar and communication system. In order to understand the effects of the proposed sharing mechanism -- in urban, sub-urban, and littoral areas -- new channel models, specifically, two- and three-dimensional channel models are designed that capture azimuth and elevation angles of communication systems and helps in placing accurate nulls. In addition, interference coming from communication systems into radar receivers is analyzed and radar performance is accessed. Using this information, resource allocation schemes are designed for communication systems that take advantage of the carrier aggregation feature of the LTE-Advanced systems. This further helps in dynamic sharing of spectrum between radars and communication systems. The proposed signal projection approach not only meets radar objectives but also meets spectrum sharing objectives. However, there is a trade-off as signal projection results in some performance degradation for radars. Performance metrics such as probability of target detection, Cramer Rao bound and maximum likelihood estimate of target's angle of arrival, and beampattern of radar are studied for performance degradation. The results show minimal degradation in radar performance and reduction in exclusion zones, thus, showing the efficacy of the proposed approach. / Ph. D.

This thesis contains design of beamforming network designed for passive radar antennas. The first part contains theory of passive radars and beamforming networks. The next part implies design of beamforming network at the block digram level. Then are choosed circuits for amplitude and phase control, including the design of control communication. It follows by realization of IQ phase shifter and his automatic measurement. Based on this results is phase shifter adjusted and PCB of 2x2 beamforming network is designed. Last part includes design of control application (Matlab) and control program for STM32F407VG microcontroller.