Maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE) of rectangular cavity dimensions from scattering data

The problem of estimating the dimension parameters of rectangular and circular cavities from scattering data is addressed in this paper. By incorporating the modal solutions of the waveguides in the Complex Phase History Signal model, the Maximum-Likelihood Estimation (MLE) criterion has been developed for the rectangular cavity. It is shown that the MLE is a multi-dimensional non-linear optimization problem and optimization techniques have been proposed to address this problem. The cavity detection problem has also been formulated within the multiple Hypotheses testing framework. The proposed ML estimation approaches have been verified with simulation studies.