Inter-sensor propagation delay estimation using sources of opportunity

• Published in: Signal processing 2016-01, Vol.118 (January), p.248-258
• Main Authors: Vincent, Rémy, Carmona, Mikael, Michel, Olivier, Lacoume, Jean-Louis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer Science; Passive identification; Propagation delay estimation; Signal and Image Processing; Sources of opportunity
• ISSN: 0165-1684; 1872-7557
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sigpro.2015.07.006

Propagation delays are intensively used for Structural Health Monitoring or Sensor Network Localization. In this paper, we study the performances of acoustic propagation delay estimation between two sensors, using sources of opportunity only. Such sources are defined as being uncontrolled by the user (activation time, location, spectral content in time and space), thus preventing the direct estimation with classical active approaches, such as TDOA, RSSI and AOA. Observation models are extended from the literature to account for the spectral characteristics of the sources in this passive context and we show how time-filtered sources of opportunity impact the retrieval of the propagation delay between two sensors. A geometrical analogy is then proposed that leads to a lower bound on the variance of the propagation delay estimation that accounts for both the temporal and the spatial properties of the sources field. •The Ward Identity to account for the temporal property of the source field.•We derive an observation model of Green׳s function and validate it with experiments.•We derive an observation model of Green׳s correlation and validate it with simulations.•Estimation and detection issues are presented for the passive estimation context.•Performances are derived to estimate the propagation delay in a passive context.