THE IMPACT OF BLOCK ADAPTIVE

QUANTIZATION ALGORITHM ON POWER-

LOSS WITH SAR RAW DATA
#Haojie Zhang , Jie Chen , Hongcheng Zeng , Wei Yang , Jingwen Li
School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University
No.37, Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China, zhj1987@sina.com

Abstract—In order to improve the radiometric precision of improved compression algorithm were proposed in order to
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image, this paper analyses the solve saturation of compressed data [3],[4]. However, no
power-loss of SAR raw data which is caused by block adaptive further research about the impact of BAQ compression on
quantization (BAQ) and then proposed a compensation method. power-loss of SAR raw data was performed. Therefore, the
Firstly, the saturation factor γ clip is defined and then a unified theoretical analysis of power-loss caused by BAQ
model of BAQ compression is proposed by using the concept of compression in SAR raw data is derived in this paper.
normalized quantizer. Secondly, the signal expression during Furthermore, a simply and precise compensation method is
BAQ procedure is deduced under the unified model and some also provided.
important parameters are expressed as a function of γ clip .
Thirdly, a one-to-one relationship between saturation degree
II. SIGNAL PROCESSING MODEL OF BAQ
and power-loss of compressed data is established through γ clip ,
the corresponding compensation method is proposed as well.
Experiment results based on simulated data prove the
correctness of theoretical relationship and the validity of the
compensation method

Index Terms—SAR, BAQ, raw data, power-loss.

I. INTRODUCTION
The rapid development of modern space-born synthetic
aperture radar (SAR) system towards multi-polarization,
multi-mode, high resolution and wide swatch has led to a
dramatic increase in SAR raw data. Since the capability for
data storage and transmission are limited, data compression
techniques become an inevitable choice for lower date rate.
Nevertheless, both the truncation effect of ADC and
application of compress algorithm will lead to distortion and
power-loss of raw data, and then deteriorate the absolute
radiometric precision of SAR image. Therefore, it’s necessary
to conduct a comprehensive analysis of power-loss in SAR
image which is caused by data compression and put forward
the corresponding compensation method.
The block adaptive quantization (BAQ) algorithm is
widely applied in modern space-born SAR system because of
its superior operability. Since BAQ is a lossy compression
algorithm, extensive research about compression performance
analysing and improving has been carried out, in order to
properly choice the compression algorithm and set
compression parameter according to different SAR operation
mode and terrain backscatter. An important conclusion that
data compression has no effect on spatial resolution of SAR
image was proposed in [1]. The influence of data compression
on SAR interferometry was analysed in [2]. Moreover, several
(a)
(b)
Fig.1. Signal processing model of data compression. (a): Traditional
model, (b): Unified model.
Fig.1.(a) shows the traditional model of BAQ procedure.
According to the procedure of BAQ compression, data
compression procedure includes ADC and BAQ compression.
First, the In-phase and Quadrature (I/Q) baseband signal is
obtained by applying down conversion and quadrature
demodulation processing on echo signal. Secondly, a gain
control system is added on I/Q signal in order to control the
saturation degree at the output of analog-to-digital converter
(ADC). Thirdly, the scaled I/Q signal is amplitude limited to
truncation level and then quantized uniformly into M-bit raw
data during ADC procedure. Finally, BAQ technique is
applied to the raw data and then N-bit (N<M) compressed
data is obtained.
As it is shown in Fig.1(a), the raw data at the input of
BAQ quantizer shall be normalized before it is compressed[5].
The normalization of raw data can be treat as normalizing the

978-1-4673-7297-8/15/$31.00 2015
c IEEE 28
 Fig.2. Decoding scheme of the proposed compensation method.

echo signal into standard Gaussian distributed and then ¦ data 2

Pdata =
k
quantized by normalized ADC. Moreover, an unified quantizer
can be obtained by combine normalized ADC and BAQ NUM data

(z σ x ) p ( x ) dx
xnorm _ i +1 2
quantizer, with threshold level of normalized ADC and output = 2³ (3)
norm _ i
level of BAQ quantizer. Fig.1(b) shows the unified model of xnorm _ i

BAQ procedure, echo signal, instead of raw data, is

znorm _ i 2 p ( x ) dx
xnorm _ i +1
= 2σ x 2 ³
normalized before compression procedure, and then xnorm _ i

compressed by unified quantizer to yield the N-bit compressed where i = 0,1, 2," , L , p ( x ) represents standard Gaussian
data.
distributed function and NUM data is data number of block
III. RELATIONSHIP BEWTEEN SIGNALS DURING BAQ data. Since the signal power of I/Q signal Pecho = σ x 2 , then the
PROCUDURE
power-loss degree of compressed data can be expressed as
Suppose the truncation level of traditional ADC is ±Vclip , P L xnorm _ i +1
η = 1 − data = 1 − 2¦ ³ znorm _ i 2 p ( x)dx (4)
then the quantization interval d , threshold level xi and output Pecho i=0
xnorm _ i

level yi can be expressed as (1) Further, the probability that echo signal is quantized into
­ Vclip ynorm _ i can be expressed as (5)
°d =
p ( x )dx
xnorm _ i +1
°° L p yi+ L+2 = p yL−i+1 = ³ i = 0,1, 2, " , L (5)
xnorm _ i
® xi = i ⋅ d i = 0,1, 2, " , L (1)
° Thus, the saturation degree of raw data can be calculated as
° yi = §¨ i + 1 ·¸ ⋅ d the sum of p y1 and p y M
°¯ © 2¹ 2

∞
p ( x ) dx
M −1
where L = 2 − 1 , and only threshold and output level in σ SD = p y + p y = 2³ (6)
1 2M xnorm _ N
positive part are given in (1) because the symmetry of
Gaussian distribute. Suppose the standard deviation σ x is and As it is shown in equation (2), threshold level xnorm _ i of
define saturation degree factor as γ clip = Vclip σ x , then the normalized ADC is function of γ clip , then the power-loss
quantization interval, threshold level and output level of degree of compressed data, as well as the saturation degree of
normalized ADC can be express as (2) raw data, can be expressed as a function of γ clip . Therefore, a
­ d γ clip
° d norm = = one-to-one relationship between saturation degree and power-
° σx L loss of compressed data can be established through γ clip .
°° γ clip
® xnorm _ i = i ⋅ d norm = i ⋅ i = 0,1, 2," , L (2) IV. COMPENSATION METHOD FOR POWER-LOSS OF BAQ
° L
° § 1· § 1 · γ clip Fig.2 shows the decoding scheme of the proposed
° ynorm _ i = ¨ i + ¸ ⋅ d norm = ¨ i + ¸ ⋅ compensation method. Firstly, saturation degree of compressed
°̄ © 2 ¹ © 2¹ L data is obtained by counting the number of saturated data.
During the decoding procedure in ground station, the Secondly, the power-loss degree in compressed data is
compressed data is rebuild to the output level of BAQ estimated through the mapping relationship between saturation
quantizer and then multiply by the standard deviation of block and power-loss degree. Finally, power compensation factor
data to obtain decompressed data. Suppose xnorm _ L +1 = ∞ and which equal 1 (1 − η ) is applied with decompressed data.
znorm _ i ∈ ª¬ xnorm _ i , xnorm _ i +1 º¼ is the output level of every
V. SIMULATION
quantization interval of BAQ or unified quantizer, then the
signal power of decompressed data can be expressed as (3) In order to verify the correctness of theoretical derivation
and effects of proposed compensation method, numerical
experiments are implemented. Fig.3 shows the mapping
relationship between saturation and power-loss degree.

2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR) 29

 100

90

80

70
Power-loss degree (%)

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Saturation degree (%)

(a)
100
Fig.4. Simulation scene of original data in Table.1. Red rectangle
90 represents the area used to compare average data power between original,
decompressed and compensated data.
80

70
Power-loss degree (%)

VI. CONCLUSION
60
This paper analyses the impact of BAQ on power-loss with
50
SAR raw data and then proposes a corresponding
40 compensation method. By analysing the commonness of ADC
30 and BAQ, a unified data compression model is proposed
and then the mapping relationship between saturation and
20
power-loss degree is established by using this model. Finally, a
10 compensation method based on the mapping relationship is
0 proposed and the decoding scheme is given as well. Simulation
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Saturaion degree (%) results prove the correctness of theoretical derivation and
validity of the proposed compensation method.
(b)
Fig.3. Mapping relationship between saturation and power-loss degree of ACKNOWLEDGMENT
decompressed data. Blue line represents theoretical derivation mapping
relationship, red dots represent results based on simulation data versus
This paper is supported by the Fundamental Research
saturation degree. (a): 8:3 BAQ compression system, (b): 8:4 BAQ Funds for the Central Universities, No. YWF_15_GJSYS_063.
compression system.
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Original Decompressed Compensated [4] Qi H, Yu W. Anti-saturation block adaptive quantization
Average algorithm for SAR raw data compression over the whole set of
Data Power 31.9385 28.7995 31.9286 saturation degrees[J]. Progress in Natural Science, 2009, 19(8):
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30 2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR)