Presence detection of long-and-short-code DS-SS signals using the phase linearity of multichannel sensors

In this study, the detection of direct sequence spread spectrum (DS-SS) signals in white Gaussian noise without prior knowledge is investigated for spatially distributed multichannel wideband sensor array. A novel technique for the presence detection of both the long-and-short-code DS-SS signals is proposed which uses the frequency domain spatial covariance matrix of the sensor array. The technique is based on the linearity of the phase response of the wideband spatial covariances of cross sensors along the bandwidth of the signal. It is shown in simulations that the technique can detect DS-SS signals in a stable way at low signal to noise ratio (SNR) without any prior information and assumption on target. In addition, the proposed method can detect DS-SS signals in the presence of narrow band interference and multipath reflections.