Advanced Interference Mitigation Method Based on Joint Direction of Arrival Estimation and Adaptive Beamforming for L-Band Digital Aeronautical Communication System

The L-band digital aeronautical communication system (LDACS) is one of the candidate technologies for future broadband digital aeronautical communications, utilizing the unused L-band spectrum between distance measuring equipment (DME) channels. However, the higher signal power of DME complicates LDACS implementation. This paper proposes an advanced DME mitigation approach for the LDACS, integrating joint direction of arrival (DOA) estimation with adaptive beamforming techniques. The proposed method begins by exploiting the cyclostationary characteristics of signals, accurately obtaining the preliminary direction of the LDACS signal using the Cyclic-MUSIC method. Subsequent precise steering vectors (SVs) are selected through Capon spectrum search, followed by the reconstruction of the interference plus noise covariance matrix (INCM). Using the obtained SV and INCM, the weight vector is calculated and beamforming is performed. Simulation results validate that the proposed method not only accurately estimates the direction of LDACS signal but also efficiently mitigates DME interference, demonstrating a superior performance and reduced algorithmic complexity, even in scenarios with lower signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and the presence of DOA estimation errors. Additionally, the proposed method achieves a low bit error rate (BER), further validating its ability to ensure communication quality and enhance the reliability of LDACS.