Estimating Angle of Arrival (AOA) for Wideband Signal by Sensor Delay Line (SDL) and Tapped Delay Line (TDL) Processors

Abstract

Angle of arrival (AOA) estimation for wideband signal becomes more necessary for modern communication systems like Global System for Mobile (GSM), satellite, military applications and spread spectrum (frequency hopping and direct sequence). Most of the researchers are focusing on how to cancel the effects of signal bandwidth on AOA estimation performance by using a transversal filter (tap delay line) (TDL). Most of the researchers were using two elements array antenna to study these effects. In this research, a general case of proposed (M) array elements is used. A transversal filter (TDL) in phase adaptive array antenna system is used to calculate the optimum number of taps required to compensate these effect. The proposed system uses a phase adaptive array antenna in conjunction with LMS algorithm to work an angle of arrival (AOA) estimator for wideband signals rather than interference canceller. An alternative solution to compensate for the effect of signal bandwidth is proposed by using sensor delay line (SDL) instead of fixed delay unit since it has variable time sampling in the time domain and not fixed time delay, depending on the angle of arrival of received signals. The proposed system has the ability to estimate two parameters for received signals simultaneously (the output Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and AOA), unlike others systems which estimate AOA only. The comparison of the simulation results with Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) technique showed that the proposed system gives good results for estimating AOA and the output SNR for wideband signals. (SDL) processor shows better performance result than (TDL) processor. MUSIC technique with both (SDL) and (TDL) processors shows unacceptable results for estimating (AOA) for the wideband signal.