Angle-of-Arrival Estimation Using Difference Beams in Localized Hybrid Arrays

Angle-of-arrival (AoA) estimation in localized hybrid arrays suffers from phase ambiguity owing to its localized structure and vulnerability to noise. In this letter, we propose a novel phase shift design, allowing each subarray to exploit difference beam steering in two potential AoA directions. This enables the calibration of cross-correlations and an enhanced phase offset estimation between adjacent subarrays. We propose two unambiguous AoA estimation schemes based on the even and odd ratios of the number of antennas per subarray N to the number of different phase shifts per symbol K (i.e., N/K), respectively. The simulation results show that the proposed approach greatly improves the estimation accuracy as compared to the state of the art when the ratio N/K is even.