Beamforming Direction of Arrival (DoA) Based in a Software-Defined Radio

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents the development and experimental validation of a low-cost Direction of Arrival (DoA) estimation system using Software-Defined Radio (SDR) technology. The system employs an NI USRP B-210 with two printed log-periodic dipole antennas in a coherent configuration, implementing beamforming algorithms through GNU Radio software. Experimental validation was conducted in different environments at 3 GHz across a ±90◦ range. The system maintains accurate DoA estimates with interference levels up to 8 dB below the signal of interest. Performance limitations include front-back ambiguity inherent to two-element arrays and sensitivity to multipath effects. This work demonstrates the feasibility of replacing expensive commercial DoA systems with affordable SDR-based alternatives, with advantages such as easy deployment and reconfigurability.