Importance of array redundancy pattern in active sensing

Abstract: This paper further investigates the role of the array geometry and redundancy in active sensing. We are interested in the fundamental question of how many point scatterers can be identified (in the angular domain) by a given array geometry using a certain number of linearly independent transmit waveforms. We consider redundant array configurations (with repeated virtual transmit-receive sensors), which we have recently shown to be able to achieve their maximal identifiability while transmitting fewer independent waveforms than transmitters. Reducing waveform rank in this manner can be beneficial in various ways. For example, it may free up spatial resources for transmit beamforming. In this paper, we show that two array geometries with identical sum co-arrays, and the same number of physical and virtual sensors, need not achieve equal identifiability, regardless of the choice of waveform of a fixed reduced rank. This surprising result establishes the important role the pattern (not just the number) of repeated virtual sensors has in governing identifiability, and reveals the limits of compensating for unfavorable array geometries via waveform design.