Wideband Gaussian Source Processing Using a Linear Nested Array

Based on a recently proposed linear nested array, we consider the problem of source number detection and direction of arrival estimation for wideband Gaussian sources. This array provides O(N
²
) degrees of freedom with O(N) sensors, enabling us to estimate K sources with N <; K sensors. To employ the nested array for the wideband case, we propose effective strategies to apply nested-array processing to each frequency component, and combine all the spectral information of various frequencies to conduct the detection and estimation. In particular, for source detection, we propose a novel approach employing the idea of ensemble, used in machine learning and statistics. Numerical simulations demonstrate the advantages of our strategies.