A Fast Peak Searching Method for DOA Estimation Based on CTA

The Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm has an excellent performance in the direction of arrival (DOA) estimation. The heavy computational burden of eigenvalue decomposition and peak searching limits the MUSIC algorithm to utilizing in the high real-time processing environment. In order to reduce the computational complexity of peak searching, a novel DOA estimation method based on the Chirp Transform Algorithm (CTA) is proposed. Considering the relationship between the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and the MUSIC algorithm, an accurate estimation of DOA can be quickly obtained by using the CTA to search peaks in a local angle range. It has great calculation efficiency with no need to search angles one by one in the local angle range. With this new method, the computational complexity can be reduced significantly. The theoretical analysis and computer simulation results show that the new method achieves the performance of the MUSIC algorithm with very low computational complexity.