Practical performance of the VEXPA estimation method in sparse regular arrays

This paper presents an investigation into the practical performance of a direction of arrival (DOA) estimation method for sparse regular arrays, called VEXPA. Its ability to estimate the number of incoming signals through cluster analysis is compared to the traditional method used by dense estimation techniques. It is seen that the usefulness of the cluster analysis method depends on the underlying estimation method used by VEXPA. The effect of quantisation errors introduced by the use of an ADC is also investigated. It is found that VEXPA performs satisfactorily with one-bit data for a maximum of one signal.