Research on uniform array beamforming based on support vector regression

Abstract

An approach was proposed for optimizing beamforming that was based on Support Vector Regression (SVR). After studying the mathematical principal of the SVR algorithm and its primal cost function, the modified cost function was first applied to uniform array beamforming, and then the corresponding parameters of the beamforming were optimized. The framework of SVR uniform array beamforming was then established. Simulation results show that SVR beamforming can not only approximate the performance of conventional beamforming in the area without noise and with small data sets, but also improve the generalization ability and reduce the computation burden. Also, the side lobe level of both linear and circular arrays by the SVR algorithm is improved sharply through comparison with the conventional one. SVR beamforming is superior to the conventional method in both linear and circular arrays, under single source or double non-coherent sources.

Keywords

array beamforming / support vector regression / optimization / framework / cost function