DOA estimation via a network of dumb sensors under the SENMA paradigm

Following the SENMA concept, we consider a wireless network of very dumb and cheap sensors, polled by a travelling "rover". Sensors are randomly placed and isotropic: Individually, they have no ability to resolve the direction of arrival (DOA) of an acoustic wave. However, they do observe the wavefront at different times. We assume that the communication load must be as limited as possible, so that these times cannot be communicated to the rover. Notwithstanding the lack of transmission of arrival times and the lack of DOA resolution ability of the individual sensors, DOA estimation is possible and simple, and asymptotic efficiency becomes closely approximated after a reasonable number of rover snapshots. Key features are the directionality of the rover antenna, the area it surveys, and the average number of sensors inside that area, as accorded a Poisson distribution.