Use of coherent signal dispersion for signal source association

A receiver for performing signal source association, the receiver comprising:

• two or more input ports for obtaining a plurality of signals;
• and
• a processor configured to
• detect a plurality of training pulses from the plurality of signals during a training phase;
• determine amplitude and phase information for one or more frequency components of the training pulses;
• determine a set of one or more comparison values for the training pulses by comparing the respective amplitude and phase information from the training pulses for one or more pairs of the plurality of signals;
• group comparison values for the training pulses in clusters;
• group the clusters to form a plurality of dispersion curves, each of the dispersion curves corresponding to one of a plurality of transmission sources;
• detect a testing pulse from the plurality of signals during a testing phase;
• determine amplitude and phase information for one or more frequency components of the testing pulse;
• determine a set of one or more comparison values for the testing pulse by comparing the respective amplitude and phase information from the testing pulse for one or more pairs of the plurality of signals;
• determine to which of the plurality of dispersion curves the set of comparison values for the testing pulse corresponds;
• and
• identifying the transmission source which transmitted the testing pulse based on the dispersion curve corresponding to the set of comparison values for the testing pulse.

A signal source association method comprising:

• using a receiver to detect a plurality of signals;
• determining amplitude and phase information for one or more frequency components of at least a portion of each of the plurality of signals;
• determining a set of one or more comparison values by comparing the respective amplitude and phase information from one or more pairs of the plurality of signals;
• determining to which of a plurality of dispersion curves the set of comparison values corresponds by calculating a metric of the distance between the corresponding dispersion curve and a point corresponding to at least one of the comparison values;
• and
• associating at least a portion of the signals with one of a plurality of transmission sources based on the dispersion curve corresponding to the set of comparison values.

A receiver for performing signal source association, the receiver comprising:

• two or more input ports for obtaining a plurality of signals;
• and
• a processor configured to
• determine amplitude and phase information for one or more frequency components of at least a portion of each of the plurality of signals;
• determine a set of one or more comparison values by comparing the respective amplitude and phase information from one or more pairs of the plurality of signals;
• determine to which of a plurality of dispersion curves the set of comparison values corresponds by calculating a metric of the distance between the corresponding dispersion curve and a point corresponding to at least one of the comparison values;
• and
• associate at least a portion of the signals with one of a plurality of transmission sources based on the dispersion curve corresponding to the set of comparison values.