Diagonal rejection-based minimum variance distortionless response for fiber underwater acoustic array

The high mounting precision of the fiber underwater acoustic array leads to an array manifold without perturbation. Besides, the targets are either static or slowly moving in azimuth in underwater acoustic array signal processing. Therefore, the covariance matrix can be estimated accurately by prolonging the observation time. However, this processing is limited to poor bearing resolution due to small aperture, low SNR and strong interferences. In this paper, diagonal rejection (DR) technology for Minimum Variance Distortionless Response (MVDR) was developed to enhance the resolution performance. The core idea of DR is rejecting the main diagonal elements of the covariance matrix to improve the output signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR). The definition of SINR here implicitly assumes independence between the spatial filter and the received observations at which the SINR is measured. The power of noise converges on the diagonal line in the covariance matrix and then it is integrated into the output beams. With the diagonal noise rejected by a factor smaller than 1, the array weights of MVDR will concentrate on interference suppression, leading to a better resolution capability. The algorithm was theoretically proved with optimal rejecting coefficient derived under both infinite and finite snapshots scenarios. Numerical simulations were conducted with an example of a linear array with eight elements half-wavelength spaced. Both resolution and Direction-of-Arrival (DOA) performances of MVDR and DR-based MVDR (DR–MVDR) were compared under different SNR and snapshot numbers. A conclusion can be drawn that with the covariance matrix accurately estimated, DR–MVDR can provide a lower sidelobe output level and a better bearing resolution capacity than MVDR without harming the DOA performance.