Multipath DOA and fading coefficients estimation using fourth-order cumulants

In this paper, a novel method based on fourth-order cumulants (FOC) is proposed to estimate the direction of arrival (DOA) and fading coefficients in multipath propagation. Firstly, we exploit the FOC to estimate the generalized steering vectors, and then the DOA of signals in each coherent group can be estimated separately. Afterwards, we can calculate the fading coefficients directly with the generalized steering vectors and DOAs. Furthermore, the estimated DOAs and fading coefficients can be utilized to further improve their estimations. The maximum number of resolved signals by our method can largely exceed the number of array elements with good performance. Simulation results validate the effectiveness and efficiency of our method.