Performance Analysis of Mode Switching Scheme for Reduction of Phase Distortion in GPS Anti-jamming Equipment Based on STAP Algorithm

A method that applies space-time adaptive signal processing (STAP) algorithm based on an array antenna consisting of multiple antenna elements has been known to be effective to remove wide-band jamming signals in GPS receivers. However, the occurrence of phase distortion in navigation signals has been a problem when navigation signals, from which jamming signals are removed using STAP, are supplied to global positioning system (GPS) receivers. This paper verified the navigation performance degradation as a result of phase distortion. To mitigate this phenomenon, this paper proposes a mode switching scheme, in which a bypass mode is adopted to make the best use of the tracking performance of receivers without performing signal processing when jamming signals are not present or weak, and a STAP mode is employed when jamming signals exceed the threshold value. In this paper, the mode switching scheme is proposed for two environments: when receivers are stationary, and when receivers are moving. This paper confirmed that the performance of position error improved because phase distortion could be excluded due to STAP if the bypass mode was adopted under a condition where the jamming signal power level was below the threshold value in an environment where receivers were stationary. However, this paper also observed that the navigation failed due to the instability of tracking performance of receivers due to phase distortion that occurred at the switching time, although the number of switching could be reduced dramatically by proposing a dual threshold scheme of on- and off-thresholds that switched a mode due to the array antenna characteristics of varying gains according to the jamming signal incident direction in an environment where receivers were moving. The analysis results verified that running the STAP algorithm at all times is more efficient than the mode switching, in terms of maintaining stable navigation and ensuring position error performance, to remove jamming signals in an environment where receivers were moving.