Finite data performance analysis of MVDR beamformer with spatial smoothing

Abstract

Analyzes the finite-data performance of MVDR beamformer with spatial smoothing, using first order perturbation theory. In particular, the authors develop expressions for the mean values of the power gain in any direction of interest, the output power and the norm of the weight-error vector, as a function of the number of snapshots and the number of smoothing steps. They simplify these expressions for a single interference case without smoothing to show explicitly how the SNR, spacing of the interference from the desired signal and the correlation between them influence the beamformer performance. Simulations are used to verify the usefulness of the theoretical expressions and the results show an excellent agreement with predicted results.<>