Performance study of the minimax robust phased array for wireless communications

In this paper, new robust M-estimation techniques are developed for combating impulsive noise and multiple-access interference in communication systems. Power functions of the proposed robust estimators are obtained by minimizing a nonquadratic residual function derived from the Huber´s minimax robust estimation theory. Maximum peaks of these power functions are used for estimation of communication signals as well as direction of arrival. A strong advantage of the proposed robust M-estimation algorithms is a decreased sensitivity of the estimates with respect to an actual unknown distribution of random noises and interferences. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed robust algorithms, the robust median, and robust Huber estimators, offer significant performance gain over the conventional and minimum-variance distortionless-response estimators, with the best results given by the robust Huber estimator.