Joint angle and range estimation for bistatic FDA-MIMO radar via real-valued subspace decomposition

Abstract The frequency diverse array (FDA) is mainly applied to achieving target localization under the complicated electromagnetic jamming condition. The bistatic multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radar with FDA has gained comprehensive attention in recent years. An innovative method covering the transmitting subarray scheme and the unitary estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance technology (ESPRIT) is proposed for joint direction of departure (DOD), direction of arrival (DOA), and range estimation. First, a non-overlapping subarray scheme is designed for the transmitting array to decouple DOD and range. For the purpose of enhancing the estimation accuracy and reducing the computational complexity, the real-valued rotational invariance matrix is obtained via applying the unitary transformation to the extended data. The removal method is proposed to avoid the periodic phase ambiguity. The pairing method is put forward to achieving the match of three-dimensional parameter (DOD, DOA and range) for multiple targets. The computational complexity of the proposed algorithm and conventional ESPRIT algorithm are also provided. Finally, extensive experiment results indicate that the proposed algorithm shows the superior performance than the ESPRIT algorithm.