Joint Ultra-wideband Characterization of Azimuth, Elevation and Time of Arrival with Toric Arrays

TL;DR

This paper introduces an analytical framework using toric arrays for joint 3D DoA and ToA estimation in multipath environments, achieving improved accuracy over existing methods across wide bandwidths.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel analytical approach employing frequency-invariant beamformers with toric arrays for simultaneous 3D DoA and ToA estimation in multipath scenarios.

Findings

Improved estimation accuracy with reduced artifacts.

Effective in single-path and multipath mm-wave environments.

Outperforms existing FIB methods with circular and elliptical arrays.

Abstract

In this paper, we present an analytical framework for the joint characterization of the 3D direction of arrival (DoA), i.e., azimuth and elevation components, and time of arrival (ToA) in multipath environments. The analytical framework is based on the use of nearly frequency-invariant beamformers (FIB) formed by toric arrays. The frequency response of the toric array is expanded as a series of phase modes, which leads to azimuth-time and elevation-time diagrams from which the 3D DoA and the ToA of the incoming waves can be extracted over a wide bandwidth. Firstly, we discuss some practical considerations, advantages and limitations of using the analytical method. Subsequently, we perform a parametric study to analyze the influence of the method parameters on the quality of the estimation. The method is tested in single-path and multipath mm-wave environments over a large bandwidth. The results show that the proposed method improves the quality of the estimation, i.e., decreases the level of the artifacts, compared to other state-of-art FIB approaches based on the use of single/concentric circular and elliptical arrays.