2-D directional of arrival angle estimation non-based on eigen structure approach

Recently, a virtual estimation of signal parameters rotational invariance technique (V-ESPRIT) has been proposed for 2D estimation, i.e., the azimuth and elevation angles from the sources. This paper is concerned with applying the propagator method (PM) to the V-ESPRIT, called "PMV-ESPRIT" to reduce the computational complexity further for 2D sources. In addition, this paper compares the performance of the PMV-ESPRIT with the V-ESPRIT and the PM of the doublet configurations (Y. Wu et al, Signal Proc., vol.83. p.1827-1831, 2003). The PMV-ESPRIT has several advantages over the PM such as: (1) a lower computational complexity which is close to 1D estimation; (2) no pair matching between azimuth and elevation angles from the 2D estimation for different sources, whereas the PM does; and (3) less information data from the antenna array to find the azimuth and elevation angles. Simulation results results show that the performance of the proposed method, with less complexity than the V-ESPRIT, is the same as that of the V-ESPRIT and slightly worse than the PM.