Simulation studies of DOA estimation by varying number of elements

in a smart antenna array

Mobia Jacob#1,Shashikumar D#2
Department of electronics and communication Engineering,
Christ University
Bangalore, India
1
mobia.mobia41@gmail.com, 2shashikumar.d@christuniversity.in
+919448434161,+918722669234

Abstract:

As
growing
demand
for
mobile
communications is constantly increasing, the need for
better coverage, improved capacity, and higher
transmission quality rises. Smart antenna technology offer
significantly improved solution to reduce interference level
and improve system capacity. The adoption of smart /
adaptive antenna techniques in future wireless systems is
expected to have a significant impact on the efficient use of
the spectrum, the minimization of the cost of establishing
new wireless networks, the optimization of service quality
and realization of transparent operation across multi
technology wireless networks. DOA estimates the direction
of arrival of the signal, using the techniques as MUSIC,
ESPRIT etc. To understand the effect of number of
elements on the DOA and signal errors, simulations are
performed using MATLAB.

Keywords-DOA, MUSIC, ESPRIT, MIMO, CDMA, Beam

forming

I. INTRODUCTION
The main job of DOA (Direction of Arrivals) estimation is to
estimate the direction of arrival of the incoming signals. DOA
depends on many parameters. The parameters are number of
mobile users, number of array elements, inter-element
spacing, number of signals and spatial distribution. As the
number of mobile subscribers increases rapidly, combined
with a demand for more sophisticated mobile services
requiring higher data rates, the operators are forced to
investigate different methods to put more capacity into their
networks.

4) Multiple Input Multiple Outputs (MIMO)

The system which is used for the operation can be sub divided
into three parts. These are mainly DOA estimation [4], DOA
classification and Beamforming. Each of these performs there
assigned operations.
III. DOA AND ANTENNA ELEMENTS
Spatial structure methods directly estimate the DOAs of
the impinging wavefronts [4]. Once the DOAs are found, the
weight vector necessary to separate the wavefronts can be
determined via beamforming methods. In this paper, MUSIC
algorithm is used to estimate the DOA of signals.
A. MUSIC Algorithm
In wireless transmission, the receiving antennas can collect
more signals that can be emitted by several sources; MUSIC
detects frequencies in a signal by performing Eigen
decomposition on the covariance matrix of a data vector Yof
M samples obtained from the samples of the received signal
[5]. The key to MUSIC is its data model

y As v
Where V is a vector of M noise samples, S is a vector of N
signal amplitudes (N=2), and A is the M N Vandermonde
matrix of samples of the signal frequencies. If we assume a
zero-mean signal and white noise, then the covariance of Y
has the form

Ry E{ yy H } ARs AH 2 I

II. SMART ANTENNA SYSTEM

Based on the signal processing technique followed at the
baseband output of the antenna array, smart antennas can be
grouped into four basic types based on:
1) Beamforming.
2) Diversity combining.
3) Space-time equalization.

Here,

Rs E{ss H } is the N N signal autocorrelation

matrix, I is the M M identity matrix, and is the noise

variance. From the Eigen decomposition of Ry , we use the
2

Eigenvectors associated with the N maximum Eigenvalues to

define the signal subspace (the column space of A), and use
the other Eigenvectors to define the noise subspace un . From

the orthogonality of the signal and noise subspaces, finding

the peaks in the estimator function

J ( w)

increasing, the beam pattern should be narrower and

strengthen.

1
[a(w)] ununH [a(w)]
H

For various w values yields the strongest frequencies, where

a(w) refers to the columns of A.
B. Analysis of DOA Estimation
For all adaptive array smart antenna simulations, the 5000
input signals of the training sequence have signed values of 1
or 1 to simulate a transmitter sending binary values.
Although there are 5000 sampling instants, the results only
show up to 200 intervals due to the extremely high rate of
convergence of the system. The step-size parameter for the
LMS algorithm is set to 0.008.

Fig.1 Smart antenna simulation received signal error for 4 elements with 1
DOA.
0
330

300

60

0.5

The carrier frequency f

30

of transmitted training

sequences is set to 400 MHz, which means the value of the

wavelength is set to 0.75m. To satisfy an element spacing d
of /2 then means that d is set to 0.375m. For simulations with
only one transmitted signal, the propagation delay from
transmission to reaching the first antenna element is set to
100s, and for those with a second transmitted signal, the
second propagation delay is set at 150s.

1.5

270

2
90

240

120

210

150
180

Fig. 2 Smart antenna simulation beam pattern for 4 elements with 1 DOA

Antenna array elements are set to 4, 8, 12, and 16 in

each of the patterns.
IV. SIMULATION RESULT
Using the analysis specification, the simulation is performed
to analyse the behaviour of smart antennas in the presence of
white signals with DOAs. We have taken the different cases
of white signals in the form of different number of array
elements. Based on the number of array elements we are taken
the steering of beam. The simulation is based on the one DOA
and 2 DOAs.

Fig.3 Smart antenna simulation received signal error for 8 elements with 1
DOA.
0

A. One DOA Case:

330

To ensure that the system worked correctly, the first

simulation investigated was the reception of one signal with

30

300

60

the one path that arrives at the base station at an angle of 30 .

A gain with amplitude of 0.5 dB was introduced to the input
signal as it was propagated to the antenna. Figure 1, 3, 5, 7
illustrates that the received signal error. It depends on the
number of antenna elements.
Figure 2, 4, 6, 8 shows that beam pattern of the system
o

correctly steers the main beam in the direction of 30 with

maximum beam strength of 2. This is due to the signal
experiencing a gain of amplitude 0.5, which reduces the
power of the signal by half. As the number of elements

0.5

1.5

270

2
90

240

120

210

150
180

Fig. 4 Smart antenna simulation beam pattern for 8 elements with 1 DOA

B. Two DOA Case:

The final smart antenna simulation is the most complex and
provided the most unexpected results. From figure 9, 11,13,15
although there were two multipaths for each signal in the
system, only two sets of received signal errors are being
displayed. That is, only four unique weight vectors exist. This
means that for multipath components of the same signal that
arrive at the same time, only one weight vector is needed.

Fig.5Smart antenna simulation received signal error for 12 elements with

one DOA.
0
330

30

300

After this finding, it was expected that the main beam would
either be directed in the direction of the closest multipath or
the one with the greatest gain. However, the beam pattern
shown in figure 10,12,14,16 displays the four different beam
patterns. The gains of these beams are half what they would
normally be and swapped between the multipath components.

60

0.5

1.5

2.5

270

90

240

The smart antenna simulations confirmed that smart system

have an ability to distinguish between signals of interest and
interferers by directing beams in the directions of the desired
signals and nulls in the directions of the interferers.

120

210

150
180

Fig. 6 Smart antenna simulation beam pattern for 12 elements with 1 DOA

Fig.9 Smart antenna simulation received signal error for 4 elements with 2
DOA

DOA1
DOA2

0
30

330

Fig.7 Smart antenna simulation received signal error for 16 elements with
one DOA.
60

0
330

300

30

4
300

60

0.5

1.5

270

90

270

2
90

120

240

150
240

120

210

210
180

150
180

Fig.8 Smart antenna simulation beam pattern for 16 elements with 1 DOA

Fig. 10 Smart antenna simulation beam pattern for 4 elements with 2 DOA

Fig. 11Smart antenna simulation received signal error for 8 elements with 2
DOA

Fig. 15 Smart antenna simulation received signal error for 16 elements with 2
DOA

DOA1
DOA2

0
DOA1
DOA2

0
30

30

330

330

60
60

300

300
2

1.5

0.5

90

270

90

270

120
120

240

240
150
150

210
180

210
180

Fig. 16 Smart antenna simulation beam pattern for 16 elements with 2 DOA
Fig. 12Smart antenna simulation beam pattern for 8 elements with 2 DOA

IV. CONCLUSIONS

Fig. 13Smart antenna simulation received signal error for 12 elements with 2
DOA

DOA1
DOA2

0
30

330

60

2.5 2

300

1.5 1

0.5

90

270

120

240

150

210
180

Fig. 14Smart antenna simulation beam pattern for 12 elements with 2 DOA

From the simulation results, we can observe that, in one

case as we increase number of elements in array, the error in
the arrived signal will reduce and also the received radiation
pattern exhibits a narrow beam. In the other case when we
increase the number of DOAs, the error is more with less
number of elements with broader beams. We observed
directions of arrival (DOAs) of multiple sources in the
presence of background white noise by using MUtiple SIgnal
Classification (MUSIC) algorithm. This demonstrates the
systems user oriented steering abilities. Using this approach
reduces the interference substantially and hence increases the
capacity of the system.
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