A Review of Sparse Sensor Arrays for Two-Dimensional Direction-of-Arrival Estimation

Ibrahim Aboumahmoud,Saleh Alawsh,Ali Muqaibel,Mohammad Alhassoun

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3092529

Ibrahim Aboumahmoud, Saleh Alawsh + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2021.3092529

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Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) arrays are fundamental to localization applications. Specifically, sparse arrays can provide superior direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation performance with limited number of sensors. There has been increased interest in the research community in designing 2D sparse arrays with performance improvement and complexity reduction. The research efforts are uncoordinated resulting in some repetitions and sometimes conflicting claims. After introducing 2D sparse arrays and their importance, this paper establishes the 2D-DoA estimation model and consolidates the performance metrics. An extensive literature overview of sparse arrays for 2D-DoA estimation is presented with an attempt to categorize existing works. The examined arrays include parallel arrays, L-shaped, V-shaped, hourglass, thermos, nested planer, and coprime planner, to name a few. Existing designs are compared in terms of required number of sensors, degrees of freedom (DOF), algorithm used, associated complexity and aperture size. The focus is on describing the sparse arrays, yet some specific details on DoA estimation algorithms are provided for selected array geometries. Fundamental problems of 2D-DoA estimation are outlined and existing solutions to alleviate these problems are discussed. This should be useful in predicting the estimation performance and required complexity; thus, aiding the decision of selecting a sensor geometry for DoA estimation. This review serves as a starting point for researchers interested in exploring or designing new 2D sparse arrays. It also helps to identify the gaps in the field and avoids unnecessary minor design modifications.

Highlights

Direction of arrival (DoA) estimation is an important application of array signal processing that has received increasing interest in the past decades
The performance and accuracy of the estimation algorithms are usually affected by some factors such as the coherence of sources, distribution of noise, signalto-noise ratio (SNR), and the geometry of the sensor array
There has been a growing interest in designing specific 2D array geometries and developing specific 2D-DoA estimation algorithms for them, which tend to show superior performance compared to algorithms that work with arbitrary sensor array geometries

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Direction of arrival (DoA) estimation is an important application of array signal processing that has received increasing interest in the past decades. There has been a growing interest in designing specific 2D array geometries and developing specific 2D-DoA estimation algorithms for them, which tend to show superior performance compared to algorithms that work with arbitrary sensor array geometries. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the considered focus and geometries were not collectively presented in a single work before The aperture of the array is directly related to the maximum number of resolvable sources, and the intersensor spacing is related to possible aliasing of some angle estimates; more details in [27] and references therein. If the source range is less than this limit, it is considered in the near-field

TERMINOLOGY OF 2D ARRAYS

NON-PARALLEL ARRAYS

PLANAR ARRAYS

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION

CONCLUDING REMARKS