Ultra-Wideband Source Localization Using a Particle-Swarm-Optimized Capon Estimator from a Frequency-Dependent Channel Modeling Viewpoint

We introduce a realistic frequency-dependent channel model for ultra-wideband (UWB) communication systems and develop a generalized broadband Capon spatial spectrum estimator for localization of multiple incoherently distributed scattering clusters. The proposed estimator is able to address the three crucial features of practical UWB impulse propagation: presence of local scattering for multiple incoherently distributed clusters, wideband array signals, and frequency-dependent dispersive effects. The particle-swarm optimization, which is a recently invented high-performance optimizer based on the movement and intelligence of swarms, is then implemented to perform a multidimensional parameter search to jointly estimate the source central angles, the polynomial regression coefficients for angle spreads, and the frequency-dependence of various clusters. Numerical experiments are also carried out to examine the performance of the algorithm under various environments and model mismatches.