Deterministic maximum likelihood method for the localization of near-field sources: algorithm and performance analysis

A deterministic maximum likelihood localization algorithm is adapted to estimate the direction of arrival and range parameters of the near field sources. Since the direct maximum likelihood estimation of near-field source parameters results in complicated multi-parameter optimization problems, we reformulated the estimation problem in terms of actual-data sample, called the incomplete data and a hypothetical data set, called the complete data and then devised the expectation/maximization iterative method for obtaining maximum likelihood estimates. The performance analysis of the proposed algorithm is then carried out through the evaluation of Cramer-Rao bounds. Finally, some simulation results are presented.