Application of Fourth-Order Cumulants to Delay Time and DOA Estimation of Multiple Delayed Waves by the MMP Method

This paper proposes an estimation method for the delay time, the direction of arrival, and the signal strength of multiple delayed waves, which are important parameters characterizing the multiple delay characteristics of mobile radio communication systems. The proposed method is an estimation method in which the superresolution and higherorder statistics are used as the guiding principle. The frequency characteristics of the multiple propagation path environment are observed by a linear array antenna, and estimated by the modified matrix pencil (MMP) technique, by generating the virtual correlation matrix from the result of processing of the fourth-order cumulants. The method can estimate at least twice as many delayed waves as when the second-order moment is used, if the number of observation points on the frequency axis and the number of antenna elements are the same. A method is also proposed in which the error in the generation of the virtual correlation matrix is reduced. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by computer simulation. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 82(12): 30–39, 1999