Direct Position Determination of Coherently Distributed Noncircular Sources

Abstract

The existing localization algorithms for coherently distributed (CD) sources fail to achieve the best localization performance because of position information loss and error accumulation. To solve this problem, this study proposed a novel direct position determination (DPD) algorithm that profits from the characteristics of noncircular signals. Based on the parameterization assumption of CD sources, the DPD localization model is initially constructed and an extended subspace data fusion‐based DPD algorithm is subsequently proposed by decomposing the extended covariance matrices, which are constructed by combining the characteristics of noncircular sources. The algorithm achieves a low complexity and a high efficiency by avoiding the calculation of the intermediate variables. Specifically, the closed‐form expression of the Cramer‐Rao lower bound for CD noncircular sources is also derived. Simulation results show that, compared with existing DPD algorithms, the proposed algorithm improves the multitarget localization capability and achieves high‐accuracy results.