A Modulation Recognition Algorithm via Hybrid Feature Analysis in Aeronautical Wireless Channel

When communicating in aeronautical wireless channels, the difficulty of radio modulation recognition increases due to the loss of information caused by noise; particularly in circumstances with low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), it is difficult to achieve recognition rates exceeding 90.0%. To improve the radio modulation recognition performances of networks at low SNRs in complex electromagnetic environments, a modulation recognition method based on multidimensional feature analysis is proposed in this paper. It is realized through a cascaded structure including a Deep Cross Network (DCN) and an improved Visual Geometry Group Network 16 (VGG16). Our network framework is divided into two modules. In the one-dimensional data analysis module, we take the high-order cumulant of a transmitted signal as the one-dimensional feature input of the DCN. In the two-dimensional data analysis module, the color constellation density of the signal is extracted as the feature map input of the improved VGG16. Finally, we build a cascaded neural network with hybrid feature inputs for modulation recognition. Experimental results show that the recognition rate of our method is higher than 90.0% at an SNR of −4 dB. Compared with other methods, the proposed method has better recognition performance at low SNRs in aeronautical wireless channels.