Cyclic cross-correlation based two-dimensional direction of arrival estimation algorithm

Many modulated communication signals exhibit a cyclostationarity property, corresponding to the underlying periodicity arising from carrier frequencies or baud rates. By exploiting cyclostationarity, the direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation can be significantly improved. In this paper, we propose a new two-dimensional (2-D) DOA estimation method that exploits cyclostationarity to enhance the noise suppressing effect. The proposed method is based on the cyclic cross-correlations of sensor outputs and is asymptotically exact for both narrowband and wideband sources. In addition, the new method does not require any 2-D search or pair matching for 2-D DOA estimation problems. Theoretical analysis and computer simulation simultaneously indicate that the proposed method has a better performance in noise suppressing and signal selectivity.