The demand of wireless communication has increased significantly in the past few decades due to huge demand to deliver multimedia content instantly. The expansion of mobile content paired with affordable mobile devices has opened a new trend for having access to the latest information on mobile devices. This trend is made possible by the technology of smart antenna systems as well as array signal processing algorithms. Array signal processing is not limited to wireless communication, but also found in other applications such as radar, sonar and automotive. One of the important components in array signal processing is its ability to estimate the direction of incoming signals known as directional-of-arrival (DOA). The performance of DOA algorithms depends on the steering vector since it contains information about the direction of incoming signals. One of the main factors to affect the DOA estimation is the array geometries since the array factor of the array geometries determines the definition of the steering vector. Another issue in DOA estimation is that the DOA algorithms are designed based on the ideal assumption that the antenna arrays are free from imperfection conditions. In practice, ideal conditions are extremely difficult to obtain and thus the imperfect conditions will severely degraded the performance of DOA estimation. The imperfect conditions include the presence of mutual coupling between elements and are also characteristic of directional antenna. There are three topics being discussed in this thesis. The first topic being investigated is new geometry of antenna array to improve the performance of DOA estimation. Two variants of the circular-based array are proposed in this thesis: semi-circular array and oval array. Another proposed array is Y-bend array, which is a variant of V-shape array. The proposed arrays are being put forward to offer a better performance of DOA estimation and have less acquired area compared with the circular array. It is found out that the semi-circular array has 5.7% better estimation resolution, 76% lower estimation error, and 20% higher estimation consistency than the circular array. The oval array improves the estimation resolution by 33%, estimation error by 60%, and estimation consistency by 20% compared with the circular array. In addition, for the same number of elements, the oval array requires 12.5% to 15% less area than the circular array. The third proposed array, Y-bend array, has 23% smaller estimation resolution, 88% lower estimation error, and 7% higher estimation consistency than the V-shape array. Among the proposed arrays, the semi-circular possessed the best performance with 25% smaller estimation resolution, ten times smaller estimation error, and 5% higher estimation consistency over the other proposed arrays. Secondly, this thesis investigates the DOA estimation algorithm when using the directional antenna array. In this case, a new algorithm is proposed in order to suit the characteristics of the directional antenna array. The proposed algorithm is a modified version of the Capon algorithm, one of the algorithms in beamforming category. In elevation angle estimation, the proposed algorithm achieves estimation resolution up to 1°. The proposed algorithm also manages to improve the estimation error by 80% and estimation consistency by 10% compared with the Capon algorithm. In azimuth angle estimation, the proposed algorithm achieves 20 times lower estimation error and 20% higher estimation consistency than the Capon algorithm. These simulation results show that the proposed algorithm works effectively with the directional antenna array. Finally, the thesis proposes a new method in DOA estimation process for directional antenna array. The proposed method is achieved by means of modifying covariance matrix calculation. Simulation results suggest that the proposed method improves the estimation resolution by 5° and the estimation error by 10% compared with the conventional method. In summary, this thesis has contributed in three main topics related to DOA estimation; array geometry design, algorithm for the directional antenna array, and method in DOA estimation process for the directional antenna array.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:615475 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Sanudin, Rahmat |
| Contributors | Arslan, Tughrul; Thompson, John |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/8992 |
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