2017 Volume E100.A Issue 5 Pages 1179-1187
In this paper, we consider a coherently distributed (CD) source model. Since the CD source is characterized by four parameters: central azimuth direction-of-arrival (DOA), azimuth angular spread, central elevation DOA and elevation angular spread, the parameter estimation is normally complex. We propose an algorithm that combines the rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT) and the generalized ESPRIT algorithm for the 2-dimensional (2D) central DOA estimation of CD sources. Using a pair of uniform circular arrays (UCAs), the proposed solution is able to obtain the central DOAs with both high accuracy and low computational complexity. The central elevation DOAs are estimated by using the rotational invariance relation between the two uniform circular sub-arrays. Based on the centrosymmetric structure of UCA, the generalized ESPRIT algorithm is then applied to estimate the central azimuth DOAs through one-dimensional searching. It is noteworthy that the central DOAs are estimated without any information of the deterministic angular distribution function (DADF). The performance of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated via computer simulations.