Stochastic Maximum Likelihood Direction Finding in the Presence of Nonuniform Noise Fields

Abstract

The maximum likelihood (ML) technique plays an important role in direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation. In this paper, we employ and design the expectation–conditional maximization either (ECME) algorithm, a generalization of the expectation–maximization algorithm, for solving the ML direction finding problem of stochastic sources, which may be correlated, in unknown nonuniform noise. Unlike alternating maximization, the ECME algorithm updates both the source and noise covariance matrix estimates by explicit formulas, and can guarantee that both estimates are positive semi-definite and definite, respectively. Thus, the ECME algorithm is computationally efficient and operationally stable. Simulation results confirm that the ECME algorithm can efficiently obtain the ML based DOA estimate of each stochastic source.

Keywords

• array signal processing
• DOA estimation
• EM algorithm
• maximum likelihood estimation
• nonuniform Gaussian noise
• statistical signal processing