Fast joint estimation for time delay and angle of arrival based on smooth preprocessing with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

Abstract In order to solve the problems of high complexity and absence of adaptability with the joint estimation for time delay (TD) and angle of arrival (AOA) in coherent multipath environments, a fast estimation algorithm based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique is proposed. First, we combine OFDM signal characteristics with array features to obtain extended arrays. Then, we obtain the channel frequency domain response covariance matrices for TD and AOA estimation separately by smoothing preprocessing in the spatial and frequency domains, respectively. Finally, we estimate the TD values by a one‐dimensional (1‐D) spectral peak search, as well as determine the closed‐form solution for AOA by Unitary‐ESPRIT. In comparison with previous work, the proposed algorithm not only improves the adaptability in correlated or mixed multipath environments but also significantly reduces the complexity. The simulation results show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed joint estimation algorithm.