Gridless Full-Space DOA Estimation for STAR-RIS-Assisted Wireless Systems

Abstract

Simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (STAR-RIS) enable full-space ($0^\circ$--$360^\circ$) signal coverage, making them a compelling platform for integrated sensing and communication in next-generation wireless networks. In this paper, we investigate gridless direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation across the full spatial domain in STAR-RIS-assisted systems operating with a single RF sensing chain. We show that the coupled reflection-transmission mechanism of STAR-RIS induces a multichannel finite-rate-of-innovation (FRI) structure in the received signal, which enables casting DOA estimation as a structured low-rank recovery problem without angular grid discretization. Building on this observation, we develop a proximal gradient descent algorithm with alternating projections onto a block-Hankel matrix set, enabling robust angle retrieval from limited measurements. Two practically relevant STAR-RIS configurations are addressed: element-wise uniform and nonuniform energy-splitting designs, each handled through a dedicated lifting strategy that preserves the underlying algebraic structure. A Ziv-Zakai bound is derived for the coupled full-space sensing model as a performance benchmark across the full SNR range. Numerical results show that the proposed methods consistently outperform grid-based baselines, achieving sub-degree accuracy within $\pm 60^\circ$ of boresight at comparable or lower computational cost.