In a One-Bit Rush: Low-Latency Wireless Spectrum Monitoring with Binary Sensor Arrays

Detecting the presence of an active random wireless source with minimum latency utilizing array signal processing is considered. The problem is studied under the constraint that the analog-to-digital conversion at each radio sensor is restricted to the reading of the analog receive signal sign. We formulate the digital signal processing task as a sequential hypothesis test in simple form. To circumvent the intractable log-likelihood ratio of the resulting multivariate binary array data, a reduced model representation within the exponential family is employed. This approach allows us to design a sequential test and to analyze its analytic performance along classical arguments. In the context of wireless spectrum monitoring for satellite-based navigation and synchronization systems, we study the achievable processing latency, characterized by the average sample number, as a function of the antennas in use. The practical feasibility and potential of the discussed low-complexity sensing and decisionmaking technology is demonstrated via simulations.