Fast communication: L-shaped array-based elevation and azimuth direction finding in the presence of mutual coupling

For two-dimensional (2-D) directions-of-arrival (DOA) estimation problem, both the mutual coupling and the failure in pairing can cause severe performance degradation. In this paper, a new elevation and azimuth direction finding algorithm is developed to overcome the above-mentioned two difficulties in the L-shaped array configuration. The key points of this paper are: (i) constructing several correlation matrices to blindly compensate the effect of unknown mutual coupling using the outputs of properly chosen sensors and (ii) deriving a rank-reduction propagator method to estimate elevation and azimuth angles so as to avoid pairing parameters. Simulation results are presented to validate the performance of the proposed method.