MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD-ESTIMATION OF THE LOCATIONS OF MULTIPLE SOURCES INAN ACOUSTIC WAVE-GUIDE

The deterministic maximum likelihood (ML) estimator is applied to the problem of estimating the locations of multiple sources in an acoustic waveguide; The structure of the estimator is examined for different n oise fields, and the alternating maximization algorithm is proposed as an efficient method for its implementation. Asymptotic expressions fo r the estimators performance are presented and studied in detail for t he special cases of one and two sources. The results of numerical simu lations verifying these expressions and comparing the estimator's favo rable performance to that of the minimum variance distortionless respo nse method are presented.