novel source localization scheme based on unitary esprit and city electronic maps in urban environments

Abstract—In this paper, a novel source localization scheme is proposed based on the unitary ESPRIT algorithm with back ray tracing technique and the city electronic maps. Our scheme can be summarized into two steps. First, the unitary ESPRIT algorithm is employed to estimate the angles and delays of the arrival rays radiated from the source. Second, based on the obtained information we devise a back ray tracing technique to recover the signal propagation paths according to the Geometrical Theory of Reflections and the city electronic map. After these two steps the source position can be obtained by averaging all the estimated positions. In order to minimize estimated errors caused by the Unitary ESPRIT, a valid-range selection criterion for the judgment of the validity of the estimated position data is proposed. On the other hand, we introduce a path length weighting factor to reduce the estimated errors caused by the terrain data inaccuracy. This position method can locate both the line of sight (LOS) and non-line of sight (NLOS) sources efficiently and it also can locate multi-sources simultaneously. Six simulations are carried out in three terrain scenarios. The numerical results demonstrate that our model can be applied to estimate the positions for both 2D and 3D cases. The accuracy of our model for a cell of 80m × 45m can reach 10m when SNR is greater than 10 dB. 1