Bearing Estimation of Signals Received by a Spatially Distributed Array of Sensors Using Maximum Entropy Method for Spectral Analysis

Abstract

Precise bearing estimation of signals received by a relatively small number of spatially distributed array of sensors can be done by exploiting high resolution property of the maximum entropy spectral analysis (MESA) procedure. It becomes evident from the results obtained in our experiments that fairly accurate estimate of bearing is possible in the case of K, the number of sensors, as small as Ave provided we make use of complex samples. Further, with K=5 and making use of complex samples it is possible to estimate bearing within 5% acuracy of signal which is 10 dB below a strong interference about 20° off from the signal. The accuracy increases with increasing K and also increasing the level of the signal. It thus appears that higher resolution in MESA can be exploited in bearing estimation of signals received by a spatially distributed collinear and equispaced array of sensors.

Indexing Terms:

• MESA
• Bearing Estimation
• Sensor Arrays