System Approach to RFI Mitigation for the SKA Rob Millenaar – SKA Program Development Office Albert-Jan Boonstra – ASTRON Rodolphe Weber – University of Orleans 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

System wide approach to RFI mitigation Overview Introduction Concepts of the SKA Receptor technology types Array layout System wide approach to RFI mitigation the RFI/EMI Environment EMC Reduction of susceptibility to RFI Mitigation in hardware and software 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Introduction Setting the scene 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

The Square Kilometre Array In a nutshell: The next generation radio telescope with ~50 times sensitivity and ~10,000 times the survey speed of the best current day radio telescopes. It will operate from 70 MHz to 10 GHz Baselines of 3000+ km Candidate sites: Southern Africa, Karoo Australasia, Boolardy 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

The Square Kilometre Array The SKA will have: up to 3000 dishes, with: wide band single pixel feeds phased array feeds ~1 GHz (300 MHz) to >10 GHz up to 250 dense Aperture Array stations (56m dia), with: ~70,000 dual pol elements, so ~150,000 receiver chains for a total of ~4 107 ~400-~1400 MHz up to 250 sparse Aperture Array stations (180m dia), with: ~10,000 dual pol elements, so ~20,000 receiver chains, for a total of ~5 106 ~70-~450 MHz 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Configuration 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Configuration 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

The challenge Requires a rigorous system-wide mitigation approach. The conclusion should be that: There will be various types of technology, much of which is concentrated in high densities  risk of strong electromagnetic coupling With differing frequency ranges what is out-of-band RFI for one is in-band for the other technology type, so all designs must be done for entire SKA frequency range! With extreme required operational sensitivity RQZ and handpicked remote sites, plus further regulation Systems and parts should be cheap to produce, to maintain challenges expensive shielding methods Requires manageable data rates must limit number of bits to be transported and processed This results in a nightmare for EMI and RFI control, the scale of which was never seen before. Requires a rigorous system-wide mitigation approach. 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

System Wide Mitigation of RFI 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Provide best RFI/EMI environment EMC policy System Wide Approach What should be done Provide best RFI/EMI environment EMC policy Reduction of susceptibility to RFI Mitigation in hardware and software 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Provide best RFI/EMI environment EMC policy System Wide Approach What should be done Provide best RFI/EMI environment EMC policy Reduction of susceptibility to RFI Mitigation in hardware and software 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Provide best RFI/EMI environment Investigate and select sites EMI/RFI Environment Provide best RFI/EMI environment Investigate and select sites Establish RQZ Spectrum regulation/law making on local + national levels + active support of local community Once the perfect site is found, place antennas sensibly (Configuration design) 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Further site characterisation is underway Site Selection The two shortlisted sites are the best in the preferred region on the globe. Further site characterisation is underway RFI has been measured and will be done again with higher sensitivity. 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

RFI environment at the core Site characterisation results of the campaign of 2005 are available. Next slide shows ‘mode 1’ results: inventory of strong RFI, potentially detrimental because of receiver linearity. Includes high speed sampling results (2μs) from 960 to 1400 MHz. Was done for 4 to 6 antenna pointings, two polarisations. Next slide shows results of two sites combined: Take maximum level of pointings/polarisations per site; Plot minima and maxima of the two datasets. 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

RFI environment at the core Mode 1 overall spectrum, 70MHz to 22 GHz 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Unavoidable RFI It is evident that, regardless of all measures that we take, receiver systems will have to deal with unavoidable types of RFI: Airborne Comms Narrow pulse & high power: nav/ATC (DME, SSR, …) Satellites NOAA series Iridium, GPS, Galileo Geostationary (broadcasting, FLTSATCOM) … 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

New RFI Campaign Purpose: High sensitivity measurements (close to RA769 levels) at the core, and some remote sites at slightly less sensitivity. In addition high time resolution measurements to capture strong short events. The campaign: Deployment at AUS and SA core sites, start measurements for ~2 months Target start June 2010 To coordinate with precursor site activities Measure with identical equipment (tested and verified at same facility), same period. Measure selection (~4 per country) of remote sites Write site reports, by April 2011. 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

SKA SA RF, trailer infrastructure, integration New RFI Campaign Partners: ASTRON data processing software, binary data format, reporting software SKA SA RF, trailer infrastructure, integration CSIRO Digital spectrometer, data acquisition 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

New RFI Campaign 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Campaign Sensitivity 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Specific attention by ITU WP-7D and Correspondence Group Radio Quiet Zones Both sites are establishing Radio Quiet Zones at the location of the core. ~150 km radius Specific attention by ITU WP-7D and Correspondence Group Activities are being monitored by a dedicated Task Force under the SCWG. Note: Presentations on RQZ’s yesterday 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Radio Quiet Zone Targets 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Further spectrum regulation Spectrum regulation/law making on local + national levels. Enforcement required. Support of local community Alternative means of communication (cf. Adrian Tiplady’s talk) Fibre to the farm Fix noisy cars Fix noisy electronics (cf. Pravin Raybole’s talk) Work with industry on low noise power distribution, etc. 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Array Planning and Design Place antennas sensibly: Zones of avoidance defined in ‘masks’ buffer zones around EMI sources Roads, rail, farms, towns buffer zones around RFI sources Mobile comms, broadcasting See presentation by Carol Wilson 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Provide best RFI/EMI environment EMC policy System Wide Approach What should be done Provide best RFI/EMI environment EMC policy Reduction of susceptibility to RFI Mitigation in hardware and software 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Appoint EMC Manager, responsible for: EMC Policy Appoint EMC Manager, responsible for: Definition of standards, best practice descriptions from industry and radio astronomy community EMC requirements for all parts of project Application of these to all designs and equipment Assessment of COTS hardware risks and modification Development of test systems, methods Development of EMC plan including specifications Ongoing RFI monitoring ‘EMC police’ 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

EMC rules apply in all directions: EMC Policy EMC rules apply in all directions: 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

What are items to worry about? EMC Policy What are items to worry about? Radiating receivers or parts Digitisation at the receiver Telescope drive systems … But also: Wireless XX, remote YY, mobile ZZ in use by staff, contractors, visitors, tourists… This is a worry at any radio telescope, but for the SKA the scale is humongous. 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Provide best RFI/EMI environment EMC policy System Wide Approach What should be done Provide best RFI/EMI environment EMC policy Reduction of susceptibility to RFI Mitigation in hardware and software 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Receiver robustness: a balancing act Susceptibility Receiver robustness: a balancing act Design for Wide band High gain Low noise Low cost Manufacturability in large quantities Design for Sufficient Rx headroom Linear operation, IP Keep power requirements low 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Digitisation: a balancing act Susceptibility Digitisation: a balancing act Design for High performance SFDR Required dynamic range: sky noise vs interference level that one aims to mitigate down the line  many bits Design for Low cost Low power Few bits, because of Cost for hardware Signal transport Signal processing in station and correlator 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Provide best RFI/EMI environment EMC policy System Wide Approach What should be done Provide best RFI/EMI environment EMC policy Reduction of susceptibility to RFI Mitigation in hardware and software 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Mitigation Mike K: on-line RFI mitigation is possible and required, but must be robust Hardware architecture/techniques: Narrow channelisation in frequency and time allows old fashioned RFI excision to be efficient Cancellation trough: ANC Parametric Estimation Spatial Filtering Subspace Filtering … Automated flagging/excision as part of the processing pipeline 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Conclusions 30 March, 2010 RFI2010

Conclusions We have a serious problem on our hands… But we can succeed if A system wide approach is followed, to Select the best possible environment Protect that pristine environment By preventing self-generated RFI By setting and enforcing appropriate design practices Prevent unavoidable levels of RFI from hurting us Robust receivers Robust digitisation and processing RFI consequences that still remain, dealt with by Effective automatic detection and mitigation in hardware, pre- and postcorrelation, and in (pipeline) software 30 March, 2010 RFI2010