A cumulant-based parameter estimation algorithm for near-field sources

To efficiently use the array aperture and avoid the complicated parameter pairing computation, this paper proposes a new cumulant-based algorithm for localizing near-field narrowband sources. Firstly, this algorithm proposes a symmetric uniform linear array (ULA), and constructs three cumulant matrices by using the fourth-order cumulants of some properly chosen sensor outputs; secondly, unlike the conventional parallel factor (PARAFAC) analysis models in data or subspace domain, it forms a three-way array (TWA) in the fourth-order cumulant domain using the three matrices, and analyzes the uniqueness of its low-rank decomposition; thirdly, it jointly estimates the frequency, the direction-of-arrival (DOA), and the range of each near-field source from the matrices via the low-rank decomposition of the TWA. The simulation results are presented to validate the performance of our proposed method.