Computationally efficient direction finding using uniform linear arrays

Abstract

Large sensor arrays are widely used in various applications, such as radar, sonar and so on, to gain predominance in detection range and spatial resolution capability, but the tremendous sensor number casts a significant computational load on the subsequent target location if the super-resolution subspace-based methods are exploited. This study presents a computationally efficient direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation method for independent stochastic signals using large uniform linear arrays (ULAs). Only simple numerical calculations are included in the proposed method, so it is computationally much more efficient than previous subspace-based methods. The signal power estimates are also available from the proposed method just by solving another over-determined linear equation set. Numerical simulations are carried out to show that the proposed method obtains DOA and signal power estimates in high precision, and it owns robustness against non-uniform and correlated noise.