Experimental Evaluation of AoA Estimation for UAV to Massive MIMO

This paper presents an evaluation of the performance of Angle of Arrival (AoA) estimation algorithms in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) communication networks utilizing massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) base stations. Five different AoA estimation algorithms were evaluated and their performance was assessed. The results show the impact of under-sampling on AoA estimation, specifically in the detection of multi-path with higher normalized power. The effects of azimuth AoA estimation via horizontal subarrays and the impact on multi-path AoA estimates for hovering drones were examined. The performance of the 2-D Bartlett spatial spectrum estimator was evaluated, demonstrating higher accuracy for both azimuth and elevation channels. This work provides important insights for system designers when designing massive MIMO to drone networks based on AoA estimation specifications.