High-Precision Time-of-Arrival Estimation Algorithm for 5G-Advanced with Multipath Channel

High-accuracy positioning plays an important role in future 5G-Advanced cellular networks. However, it is quite challenging to utilize 5G signals to estimate positioning parameters accurately under multipath environments. To establish a high-precision real-time location system (RTLS), which is suitable for indoor scenarios, advanced parameter estimation techniques with low computational complexity should be developed. This paper proposes a modified subspace-based time-of-arrival (TOA) estimation algorithm for 5G signals with ultra-high accuracy and reduced complexity under multipath environments. A novel smoothing scheme termed as grouped subcarrier smoothing (GSS) is proposed to reduce the dimension of the covariance matrix involved in typical subspace-based methods. Then, the computational complexity of the corresponding eigenspace calculation is reduced. The TOA estimation performance is enhanced by constructing multiple snapshots of the estimated channel frequency response vector in the frequency domain. Finally, the super-resolution TOA estimate can be obtained using only one orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol. Simulation results show that the proposed method achieves centimeter-level TOA estimation accuracy under multipath channels when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is high.