Noncircular sources-based sparse representation algorithm for direction of arrival estimation in MIMO radar with mutual coupling

In this paper, a reweighted sparse representation algorithm based on noncircular sources is proposed, and the problem of the direction of arrival (DOA) estimation for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar with mutual coupling is addressed. Making full use of the special structure of banded symmetric Toeplitz mutual coupling matrices (MCM), the proposed algorithm firstly eliminates the effect of mutual coupling by linear transformation. Then, a reduced dimensional transformation is exploited to reduce the computational complexity of the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, by utilizing the noncircular feature of signals, the new extended received data matrix is formulated to enlarge the array aperture. Finally, based on the new received data, a reweighted matrix is constructed, and the proposed method further designs the joint reweighted sparse representation scheme to achieve the DOA estimation by solving the l1-norm constraint minimization problem. The proposed method enlarges the array aperture due to the application of signal noncircularity, and in the presence of mutual coupling, the proposed algorithm provides higher resolution and better angle estimation performance than ESPRIT-like, l1-SVD and l1-SRDML (sparse representation deterministic maximum likelihood) algorithms. Numerical experiment results verify the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method. © 2016 by the authors