Near-Field Velocity Estimation and Doppler-Aware Localization in OFDM Massive MIMO

Abstract

In Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)-based massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) near-field (NF) sensing, target motion induces an antenna-dependent bistatic Doppler variation across the array aperture. Ignoring this spatial Doppler variation leads to a model mismatch that degrades NF localization. In this paper, we propose a low-complexity recursive framework for joint radial/transverse velocity estimation and Doppler-aware localization. Initialized by a constant-Doppler coarse localization, the method alternates between closed-form Least Squares Estimator (LSE)-based velocity estimation and antenna-dependent Doppler-aware localization refinement. Simulation and measurement results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework against two benchmark methods. Compared with a low-complexity constant-Doppler baseline method, the proposed algorithm improves range, angle, and radial velocity estimation results, while also enabling transverse velocity estimation. In the measurement results, the overall localization error decreases from 0.268 m to 0.064 m. The radial and transverse velocity estimation errors are 0.032 m/s and 0.069 m/s, respectively. Compared with a high-complexity exhaustive four-dimensional (4D) Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE), the proposed method achieves comparable velocity estimation results while yielding a more accurate localization result when the 4D MLE has a practical finite search grid.