Direction-of-Arrival Estimation of Closely Spaced Emitters Using Compact Arrays

Performance evaluation of direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms has continuously drawn significant attention in the past years. Most previous studies were conducted under the situation that antenna element separation is about half wavelength in order to avoid the appearance of grating lobes. On the other hand, recent developments in wireless communications have favoured the use of portable devices that utilize compact arrays with antenna element separations of less than half wavelength. Performance evaluation of DOA estimation algorithms employing compact arrays is an important and fundamental issue, but it has not been fully studied. In this paper, the performance of the matrix pencil method (MPM) that applies to DOA estimations is investigated through Monte Carlo simulations. The results show that closely spaced emitters can be accurately resolved using linear compact array with an array aperture as small as around half wavelength.