The Wavefront Estimation and Signal Detection in Multi-element Antenna Arrays at Low SNR

In this paper, we present a combined signal wavefront estimation and detection scheme, based on the maximum likelihood method, and analyze its characteristics. A two-stage procedure for angle of arrival (AoA) estimation for signals with plane wavefront is proposed. This procedure allows to avoid ambiguities in the signal phases measurement on the antenna elements, and is applicable for antenna arrays with arbitrary geometry. The numerical simulations have shown that proposed AoA estimation and estimation-detection schemes demonstrate higher efficiency on 0.6-0.9dB in comparison with discrete DFT method and standard linear regression smoothing for multielement antenna arrays at low SNR region. The accuracy of the AoA estimation schemes is compared with the Cramer-Rao boundary and achieves that at large SNR.