Joint Estimation of DOA and TDOA of Multiple Reflections in Mobile Communications

In a multipath communication scenario, it is often relevant to estimate the directions and relative delays of each multipath signal. We present an effect algorithm for the simultaneous estimation of these parameters by re-iterative super-resolution, beamforming, and MUSIC-like searching techniques. The algorithm first separates and estimates direction of arrival (DOA) of the multipath signals. Linear constrained minimum power beamforming is used to obtain the transmitted time function of the desired signal in certain incident angle. Then, time difference of arrival (TDOA) for the incident signals are mapped into phase shifts in the frequency domain. Using the DFT of the desired signal and the received data, we can separate the phase shifts in the frequency domain due to time delay by MUSIC-like searching. At the same time, the pairing of the estimated DOA and TDOA is automatically determined. Computer simulations illustrating the performance of the proposed algorithm with the Cramer-Rao bound are included.