Cramér-Rao Bound Analysis of Spatial Effects in 2D TOA Localization With Directive Antennas

Although Time-of-Arrival (TOA) localization is widely studied in the literature, most analyses assume omnidirectional antennas, which oversimplifies system performance and leaves the impact of antenna directivity underexplored. This paper introduces a new, more realistic and comprehensive model that...

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Main Authors: Imran Moez Khan, Xuezhi Wang, William Moran, Wayne S. T. Rowe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10818624/
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author Imran Moez Khan
Xuezhi Wang
William Moran
Wayne S. T. Rowe
author_facet Imran Moez Khan
Xuezhi Wang
William Moran
Wayne S. T. Rowe
author_sort Imran Moez Khan
collection DOAJ
description Although Time-of-Arrival (TOA) localization is widely studied in the literature, most analyses assume omnidirectional antennas, which oversimplifies system performance and leaves the impact of antenna directivity underexplored. This paper introduces a new, more realistic and comprehensive model that accounts for directive antennas, offering a significant improvement over conventional TOA localization theory. Expressions are derived for the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) terms corresponding to the location coordinates of a passive target, explicitly incorporating arbitrary antenna radiation patterns. Our analysis reveals that the FIM singularity conditions depend on the derivatives of the anchor antenna radiation pattern, which introduces new geometrical insights into observability. While our analysis is applicable for any TOA setup, we focus on scenarios that extend conventional TOA theory and have not been previously reported. TOA studies often conclude that 2D localization is only possible with at least two anchors, and that collinear anchor-target layouts leads to insufficient observability. We prove that a single anchor with a directive antenna can suffice for localization using multiple range measurements, and that the FIM can be inverted even in the collinear anchor-target geometry. In both of these cases, observability emerges from the directional noise introduced by non-isotropic antenna radiation patterns. The results are validated via Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) simulations for both single anchor and collinear anchor cases. In regions where the FIM is near-singular, the MLE bias is significant and the Cramér-Rao Bound (CRB) is not a lower bound due to insufficient information. Conversely, in non-singular regions, the MLE is unbiased and achieves the CRB.
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spelling doaj-art-fd18c486ed1c4e37be1c7e4aab55563b2025-01-16T00:02:04ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-01132518252810.1109/ACCESS.2024.352430810818624Cramér-Rao Bound Analysis of Spatial Effects in 2D TOA Localization With Directive AntennasImran Moez Khan0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4442-481XXuezhi Wang1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7592-2358William Moran2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6219-2341Wayne S. T. Rowe3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0947-2341College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaCollege of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaCollege of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaCollege of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaAlthough Time-of-Arrival (TOA) localization is widely studied in the literature, most analyses assume omnidirectional antennas, which oversimplifies system performance and leaves the impact of antenna directivity underexplored. This paper introduces a new, more realistic and comprehensive model that accounts for directive antennas, offering a significant improvement over conventional TOA localization theory. Expressions are derived for the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) terms corresponding to the location coordinates of a passive target, explicitly incorporating arbitrary antenna radiation patterns. Our analysis reveals that the FIM singularity conditions depend on the derivatives of the anchor antenna radiation pattern, which introduces new geometrical insights into observability. While our analysis is applicable for any TOA setup, we focus on scenarios that extend conventional TOA theory and have not been previously reported. TOA studies often conclude that 2D localization is only possible with at least two anchors, and that collinear anchor-target layouts leads to insufficient observability. We prove that a single anchor with a directive antenna can suffice for localization using multiple range measurements, and that the FIM can be inverted even in the collinear anchor-target geometry. In both of these cases, observability emerges from the directional noise introduced by non-isotropic antenna radiation patterns. The results are validated via Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) simulations for both single anchor and collinear anchor cases. In regions where the FIM is near-singular, the MLE bias is significant and the Cramér-Rao Bound (CRB) is not a lower bound due to insufficient information. Conversely, in non-singular regions, the MLE is unbiased and achieves the CRB.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10818624/Cramér-Rao boundtime-of-arrival localizationradiation patternanchor geometry
spellingShingle Imran Moez Khan
Xuezhi Wang
William Moran
Wayne S. T. Rowe
Cramér-Rao Bound Analysis of Spatial Effects in 2D TOA Localization With Directive Antennas
IEEE Access
Cramér-Rao bound
time-of-arrival localization
radiation pattern
anchor geometry
title Cramér-Rao Bound Analysis of Spatial Effects in 2D TOA Localization With Directive Antennas
title_full Cramér-Rao Bound Analysis of Spatial Effects in 2D TOA Localization With Directive Antennas
title_fullStr Cramér-Rao Bound Analysis of Spatial Effects in 2D TOA Localization With Directive Antennas
title_full_unstemmed Cramér-Rao Bound Analysis of Spatial Effects in 2D TOA Localization With Directive Antennas
title_short Cramér-Rao Bound Analysis of Spatial Effects in 2D TOA Localization With Directive Antennas
title_sort cram x00e9 r rao bound analysis of spatial effects in 2d toa localization with directive antennas
topic Cramér-Rao bound
time-of-arrival localization
radiation pattern
anchor geometry
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10818624/
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