Coprime coarray interpolation for DOA estimation via nuclear norm minimization

Abstract

Coprime arrays, consisting of two uniform linear arrays whose inter-element separations are coprime, can resolve O(MN) sources using only O(M + N) sensors. However, holes in the coarray prevent us from using the full coarray in the MUSIC algorithm for DOA estimation. Through interpolation, it may be possible to use the remaining elements of the coarray to increase the degrees of freedom beyond what is captured in the contiguous ULA section in the coarray. Techniques like positive definite Toeplitz completion, array interpolation, and sparse recovery, manage to include all the information in the coarray, but they demand extra fine-tuned parameters and have individual drawbacks. In this paper, a simple and tractable convex framework via nuclear norm minimization is presented. This approach has no extra tuning parameters and overcomes several undesired issues of other techniques. Numerical examples indicate that, in many instances, the proposed method not only increases the estimation accuracy but also distinguishes more sources than other methods.

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