Time Reversal Based Active Array Source Localization

Source localization especially direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation using sensor arrays is of considerable interest in both classical array signal processing and radar applications. Most radar systems are designed under the line-of-sight (LOS) assumption with multipath echos treated as undesired clutter noise. Strong multipath, therefore, has a negative impact on the resolution of the radar systems and their ability in accurately localizing the target. Rather than treating multipath as a detrimental effect, the paper introduces time reversal (TR) to exploit spatial/multipath diversity in improving the capability of the existing localization algorithms. In particular, we design TR based range and DOA estimators that adaptively adjust the probing radar waveforms to the multipath characteristics of the environment. The benefits of the spatial/multipath diversity in the proposed DOA and range estimators are quantified by deriving the respective Cramér-Rao bounds (CRB) and comparing them with the analytical expressions for their conventional counterparts. Numerical simulations also confirm the benefit of applying TR to source localization algorithms especially at low signal-to-noise ratios below -5 dB.