A Bayesian Estimation of Distribution Algorithm Approach to the Definition of Linear Antenna Arrays Excitations

Abstract

Abstract. This paper introduces and investigates the family of aperture distributions whose members have the best Side Lobe Ratio (SLR) for a given Inverse Dynamic Range Ratio (IDRR). An optimization approach based on Estimation of Distributions Algorithms is used to find the family instances. The paper shows that the family has limiting distributions with a number of interesting properties, e.g. it has a good tradeoff between beamwidth and SLR and has the best IDRR for a given beamwidth. The numerical results allow us to conclude the following: 1) the IDRR impacts the complexity of the problem, i.e. the larger the IDRR the easier the optimization. 2) linear entropic mutation improves the performance of the algorithms and reduces the population size requirements. 3) the independence model seems to be adequate for very large IDRR but fails dramatically for the other cases.