The Estimation of DOA in Smart Antenna Systems

Smart antennas systems are being the key solution to increase the spectral efficiency and improving the system performance in mobile communication. Smart antennas usually consist of a number of radiating elements (i.e. array antennas) whose individual excitation can be controlled by DSP (digital signal processor) in order to achieve the desired radiation pattern. The smart antennas systems estimate the direction of arrival of the signal, using techniques such as MUSIC (Multiple Signal Classification), and ESPRIT (estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques) algorithms. They involve finding a spatial spectrum of the antenna array, and calculating the DOA from the peaks of this spectrum. These calculations are computationally intensive..