Hybrid TOA/AOA localization for indoor multipath-assisted next-generation wireless networks

The next-generation wireless communication systems (NGWCs) necessitate integrating effective communication and localization techniques. However, the multipath badly affects both communication and localization, especially in indoor NGWCs. Therefore, we propose a novel hybrid localization method based on time and angle-based ranging estimation to address this issue. This method employs an improved matrix enhancement matrix pencil algorithm (IMEMP) to obtain the time of arrival (TOA) and corresponding angle of arrival (AOA) of each path. Two distinct localization methods are presented: First arrival path-based maximum likelihood (ML) and scatterer-assisted. Both methods are designed to mitigate the adverse effects of serious non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenarios. The proposed scatterer-assisted method demonstrates a noteworthy 20% improvement in performance compared to scenarios where only the first path is considered, particularly in specific areas. These findings highlight the potential of the proposed approach to enhance localization accuracy in challenging wireless environments, offering valuable insights for the advancement of NGWCs.