A novel multi-beam adaptive antenna was investigated by considering the spatially distributed source model for local scattering radio propagation in cellular mobile communications. This antenna is consisted of a focusing configuration with Fresnel zone phase-correcting plate (FZP) and feeding array. The robust estimation of parameters (direction-of-arrival (DOA) and angular spread) was studied based on the generalized MUSIC algorithm and the maximum likelihood estimation in the case of coherently and incoherently spatially distributed source respectively. Simulation results show that the FZP configuration outperforms the uniformly linear array (ULA) in reducing the estimation errors of the RMS in the considered propagation environment. Therefore a robust estimation of DOA can be achieved with this novel adaptive antenna.