Bearing estimation for wideband signals in a multipath channel

In mobile communications there are problems due to multipath fading. An adaptive array antenna has been studied as a countermeasure to compensate for signal distortion due to fading because an array antenna can reduce multipath interference by using antenna directivity in the space domain. This paper proposes and investigates a method of estimating the direction of arrival (DOA) of wideband signals such as spread spectrum signals, in a multipath channel. The DOA estimation method can reduce the effect of signal distortion by creating a spatial spectrum which satisfies the sampling theory in the temporal domain. The DOA estimate calculated from this spatial spectrum is robust against signal distortion due to multipath. Computer simulations were used to evaluate the proposed method. In comparison with conventional the MUSIC algorithm, the proposed method showed superior performance in a multipath channel.