SPSA-Based Successive Beamforming for Mobile Satellite Receivers with Phased Arrays

TL;DR

This paper introduces a low-complexity beamforming algorithm for mobile satellite receivers with phased arrays, using SPSA with successive sub-array selection to optimize antenna weights and improve signal reception.

Contribution

The work presents a novel SPSA-based iterative beamforming method combined with sub-array selection, enhancing robustness and efficiency in mobile satellite communication systems.

Findings

Achieves reliable beamforming performance with poor initial alignment.

Reduces sensitivity to initial beam direction.

Demonstrates effectiveness through simulation results.

Abstract

Efficient and low-complexity beamforming design is an important element of satellite communication systems with mobile receivers equipped with phased arrays. In this work, we apply the simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) method with successive sub-array selection for finding the optimal antenna weights that maximize the received signal power at a uniform plane array (UPA). The proposed algorithms are based on iterative gradient approximation by injecting some carefully designed perturbations on the parameters to be estimated. Additionally, the successive sub-array selection technique enhances the performance of SPSA-based algorithms and makes them less sensitive to the initial beam direction. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithms can achieve efficient and reliable performance even when the initial beam direction is not well aligned with the satellite direction.