This letter proposes the use of a novel time-modulated array structure to estimate the direction of arrival (DOA). Such a time-modulated coprime array (TMCA) is obtained by exchanging a coprime array's phase shifter for a radio frequency (RF) switch. Compared with a traditional coprime array, the TMCA's structure is much simpler, and it has a higher degree of freedom and resolution compared with a time-modulated uniform linear array (TMULA) due to its exploitation of the virtual array's equivalent signals. Theoretical analysis and experimental results have validated the effectiveness of the proposed structure and method and have confirmed that a TMCA's DOA performance is better than that of a TMULA using the same number of antennas.

Conventional approach for frequency estimation usually assume a single tone without data modulation. In many applications such an assumption, realized by using either a separate pilot beacon or synchronization preamble is not feasible. This paper deals with frequency estimation of phase-modulated carriers in the absence of timing information and known data pattern. We introduce new frequency estimators that are based on the generalized maximum likelihood principle. The communication channels under consideration include both additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels and correlated Rician fading channels. For the latter class, we distinguish between the case when the fading (amplitude) process is tracked and that when it is not tracked.

Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation has been a primary focus of research for many years. Research on DOA estimation continues to be immensely popular in the fields of the internet of things, radar, and smart driving. In this paper, a simple new two-dimensional DOA framework is proposed in which a triangular array is used to receive wideband linear frequency modulated continuous wave signals. The mixed echo signals from various targets are separated into a series of single-tone signals. The unwrapping algorithm is applied to the phase difference function of the single-tone signals. By using the least-squares method to fit the unwrapped phase difference function, the DOA information of each target is obtained. Theoretical analysis and simulation demonstrate that the framework has the following advantages. Unlike traditional phase goniometry, the framework can resolve the trade-off between antenna spacing and goniometric accuracy. The number of detected targets is not limited by the number of antennas. Moreover, the framework can obtain highly accurate DOA estimation results.

Noncoherent detectors for use in acquiring data-modulated direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DS/SS) signals are considered in this paper. Taking data modulation and timing uncertainty into account and using the generalized maximum likelihood (GML) or maximum likelihood (ML) detection approaches, we derive optimal detectors in the sense of Bayes or Neyman-Pearson and propose various suboptimal detectors. A simple systematic means for their realization is suggested and the numerical performance of these detectors is presented. We also compare their performance with that of the noncoherent combining (NC1) detector that had been proposed to serve the same need. Numerical results show that even the proposed suboptimal detectors can outperform the NC1 detector in most cases of interest.

Near-field beamforming has played an important role in many scenarios such as radar imaging and acoustic detection. In this paper, the near-field beamforming is implemented in the time modulated array with the harmonic. The beam pattern with a low sidelobe level in precise position is achieved by controlling the switching sequence in time modulated cross array. Numerical results verify the correctness of the proposed method.

This letter proposes a blind phase compensation method for the phase errors in the Multi-Carrier Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar, which decouples the range and DOA coupling. The phase errors under the Linear Frequency Modulated Continuous Waveform (LFMCW) scheme are firstly derived, followed with the signal processing steps. Further, multiple targets with certain velocities can be handled uniformly without pre-knowledge of the actual range information of the targets. The evaluations of the DOA estimation performance are carried out through simulations, which validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In this paper, we briefly describe situations that may cause HFN de-synchronization for ciphering applications in UMTS. Detection methods of HFN de-synchronization are discussed and the lower bound of the HFN de-synchronization perceptibility is derived. A supporting simulation result of the perceptibility is given. Then, an Automatic Recovery of HFN Synchronization (ARHS) algorithm is presented. The average lost PDU number of the ARHS algorithm is derived and supported by simulation results. The average lost SDU number is used as the figure of merit for HFN synchronization recovery procedures. Simulation results of the average lost SDU number show that the ARHS algorithm is quite effective to recover HFN synchronization after HFN de-synchronization situations happen.