Adaptive robust DS-SS signal processing with short data records

We consider the problem of adaptive reception of a multipath Direct-Sequence Spread-Spectrum (DS-SS) signal in the presence of unknown correlated SS interference and additive impulsive noise. The proposed SS receiver structure is comprised by a vector of adaptive chip-based Hampel non-linearities followed by an adaptive Auxiliary-Vector linear tap- weight filter. The non-linear receiver front-end adapts itself to the unknown prevailing noise environment providing robust performance over a wide range of underlying noise distributions. The adaptive Auxiliary-Vector linear tap-weight filter allows rapid SS interference suppression with a limited data record. Numerical and simulation studies offer comparisons with the conventional Minimum-Variance- Distortionless-Respohse (MVDR) SS receiver, as well as MVDR filtering preceded by vector adaptive chip-based non-linear processing.