Performance of a Three-Dimensional Antenna Array and Its Application in DOA Estimation

In this paper, we develop a novel three-dimensional (3D) multiantenna array for enhancing the performance of multiple input multiple output systems. This array is composed of two uniform circular arrays (UCAs). A frequency nonselective Rayleigh fading channel model is introduced to calculate the spatial fading correlation (SFC) and capacity of a multipath channel. Then, the influence of the rotation angle ϕ 0 and the perpendicular distance h of the upper UCA in a double uniform circular array (DUCA) with reference to the lower UCA and the radius r of the DUCA on the SFC and the capacity are investigated. In addition, the DUCA is applied to a multiple signal classification algorithm in order to estimate the direction of arrival (DOA). Simulation results show that ϕ 0 which results in the minimum correlation and the maximum capacity depends on the angle of arrival, and the increase in h and r enhances the capacity performance. However, when h / λ > 1 / 2 , h has little effect on the capacity. Comparing the spatial spectrum and the root mean square error of the DUCA with a general uniform linear array, UCA, and 2-L array, this paper shows that 3D antenna arrays have significant advantages in DOA estimation.