Non-coherent source localization with distributed sensor array networks

The non-coherent source localization problem based on distributed sensor arrays can be formulated into a group sparsity based phase retrieval problem where only the magnitude (absolute value) of the received signals is available. Under such a framework, a two-dimensional localization method is proposed. Unlike traditional source localization methods, random phase errors at sensors of the distributed array will not affect estimation results by the proposed method. Simulation results indicate that the proposed non-coherent source localization method outperforms the traditional one in the presence of large phase errors, while still maintains an acceptable accuracy in the absence of phase errors.