Adaptive correlation algorithm for aligning antenna arrays in deep space communication

Instead of using large apertures, antenna arrays can be used to enhance the receiving signal-to-noise ratio in deep space applications. An adaptive correlation algorithm is presented. This method is a variable step-size algorithm based on a sigmoid function, which not only uses the cross-correlation of each antenna with the reference one but also utilises the variance of weight updating values from every iteration. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can achieve low combining loss for very weak signals after a few iterations.