Development of a novel single-channel direction-finding method

Direction-finding (DF) techniques have classically been based on multiple antennas systems employing multiple receivers. Classic techniques such as MUSIC and ESPRIT use simultaneous phase information from each antenna to estimate the angle-of-arrival of the signal of interest. In many practical scenarios, however, multiple receivers are impractical. Thus single channel techniques are of interest, particularly in mobile scenarios. This paper presents a novel approach to single channel DF based on a vector of phase-locked loops in conjunction with a uniform circular array. Analysis of the algorithm's performance in an AWGN channel is presented using Matlab simulation results and compared to a proof-of-concept implementation on a software radio with an 8 element uniform circular array. The paper also investigates frequency offset compensation and metrics for segregating good and bad estimates.