Investigation of high-resolution DOA estimation algorithms for optimal performance of smart antenna systems

High-resolution signal processing for broadband wireless communications employing smart antenna arrays is associated with high costs, both in terms of hardware and computational complexity. This paper presents a performance evaluation of robust and high-resolution direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms used in the design of smart antenna systems. A comparative study is carried out by evaluating the performance of these DOA algorithms for a set of input parameters that include the size of the sensor array, number and angular separation of incident signals from the mobile terminals, as well as noise characteristics of the mobile communication channel. Performance improvement in DOA estimation is demonstrated for certain range of input parameters and the results of the numerical experiments are used to set the criteria for optimal performance of the smart antenna system.