Method of determining the direction of arrival of a radio signal, as well as radio base station and radiocommunications system

摘要

The determination of the direction of arrival of a radio signal by an antenna array connected to a base station of a radiocommunications system, particularly of an SDMA (Space Division Multiple Access) mobile radio system, is complicated by multipath. A method is known which uses the so-called ESPRIT algorithm and which is especially suited for a reliable estimation of direction, since the receive level (Sm) and the phase position ( phi m) are measured for each radiating element and entered in a symmetrical matrix (A) in order to then determine the direction of arrival by eigenvalue decomposition. A simpler and faster method (100) is proposed which involves computing the eigenvector (Wn) corresponding to the dominant eigenvalue ( lambda 1) of this matrix (A), which indicates the direction of arrival (DOA) of the strongest radio signal (S) (steps 130 and 140). The computationally intensive eigenvalue decomposition is eliminated.