Weighted sparse Bayesian method for direction of arrival estimation based on grid fission

Abstract

An off-grid weighted sparse Bayesian learning algorithm based on grid fission for direction of arrival estimation is proposed. The existing grid fission algorithms can use fewer grid points with variant intervals to estimate the true DOAs. However, their learning processes are based on the traditional sparse Bayesian algorithm, which only assigns the same prior distribution assumption to the signals on all grids, but ignores the difference of signal distribution of different grid points. It will result in inaccurate fission location and fission direction because of the insufficient resolution of the spatial spectrum, reducing the estimation accuracy. Moreover, the fission strategy will cost much computation time due to the increase of grid points. To solve these problems, the proposed algorithm utilises the orthogonality of signal subspace and noise subspace to design the weights for prior signal distribution assumption, making the peaks of spatial spectrum more pronounced and easy to distinguish, using more accurate estimated DOAs and off-grid parameter to determine the fission location and direction. In addition, the fission process deletes redundant grid points to simplify calculations. Compared with the existing grid fission algorithms, the proposed method has superior performance in estimation accuracy and computational time.