Angle of arrival (AoA) determination for Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE)

A method for compensating for phase errors within samples of a communication signal, the method comprising:

• developing, by a processor, a covariance matrix having a first plurality of samples of a constant tone signal captured during a reference period of the communication signal that is observed by a plurality of receiving antennas;
• receiving, by the processor, a plurality of phase shifts over a plurality of instances in time, the plurality of phase shifts being determined from a second plurality of samples of the communication signal that is observed by a reference receiving antenna from among the plurality of receiving antennas, each phase shift from among the plurality of phase shifts corresponding to timing differences arising from sequentially sampling a corresponding receiving antenna among the plurality of receiving antennas at a corresponding sampling period from among a plurality of sampling periods;
• and
• removing, by the processor, corresponding phase shifts from among the plurality of phase shifts from the first plurality of samples of the communication signal to provide a phase-corrected covariance matrix.

An electronic processing system for determining an angle of arrival (AoA) of a communication signal, the electronic processing system comprising:

• a memory that stores instructions;
• and
• a processor configured to execute the instructions, the instructions, when executed by the processor configuring the processor to:
• determine a plurality of phase shifts over a plurality of instances in time from first samples of a constant tone signal captured during a reference period of a communication signal as observed by a reference receiving antenna selected from among a plurality of receiving antennas, the plurality of phase shifts corresponding to timing differences arising from sampling the plurality of receiving antennas at corresponding ones of the plurality of instances in time,
• sample the communication signal as observed by sequentially selected receiving antennas from among the plurality of receiving antennas over a plurality of sampling periods to provide second samples of the communication signal,
• remove the plurality of phase shifts from corresponding samples from among the second samples of the communication signal to provide phase corrected second samples of the communication signal, and
• determine the AoA of the communication signal from the phase corrected second samples of the communication signal.