Numerical-Analytical Study of Performance of Mixed-Order Statistics Algorithm for Joint Estimation of DOA, Range and Backscatter Coefficient in a MIMO Structure

Unlike passive detection in the far-field where the array steering vector depends only on direction-of-arrival (DOA), in the near-field (NF) since the shape of the spherical wavefront changes nonlinearly with position, the array steering vector depends on both the DOA and the range parameters. On the other hand, in an active detection scenario, measuring the reflective strength of a target is extremely important in radar applications. Recently, a method called mixed-order statistics algorithm (MOSA) with the joint estimation of three parameters, DOA, range and backscatter coefficient, in the NF by a multiple-input multiple-output structure has been proposed. MOSA defines two special spatial functions of the fourth-order and second-order statistics of the received signal and uses their combination to estimate the parameters. In this paper, first, a summary of the algorithm implementation steps is provided. Then, with numerical and analytical analyzes, its performance in terms of estimation accuracy, resolution and computational complexity is discussed. Its advantages and disadvantages are presented and solutions to improve its performance are provided.