Sparse Non-Uniform Linear Array-Based Propagator Method for Direction of Arrival Estimation

Abstract

A novel approach that does not require the number of sources as a priori is proposed to estimate the direction of arrival (DOA) based on a sparse non-uniform linear antenna array. To ensure the identifiability of the DOA, a specific configuration scheme of sparse array is designed. Based on this specific sparse array, firstly the fourth-order cumulant (FOC) is adopted to eliminate the impact imposed by Gaussian noise. Secondly, to circumvent eigenvalue decomposition or singular value decomposition, a propagator is constructed by using a Hermitian FOC matrix and a hyperparameter. Finally, a projection onto an irregular Toeplitz set is proposed to further improve estimation accuracy.