Design and Processing Method for Doppler-Tolerant Stepped-Frequency Waveform Using Staggered PRF

Stepped-frequency waveform may be used to synthesize a wideband signal with several narrow-band pulses and achieve a high-resolution range profile without increasing the instantaneous bandwidth. Nevertheless, the conventional stepped-frequency waveform is Doppler sensitive, which greatly limits its application to moving targets. For this reason, this paper proposes a waveform design method using a staggered pulse repetition frequency to improve the Doppler tolerance effectively. First, a generalized echo model of the stepped-frequency waveform is constructed in order to analyze the Doppler sensitivity. Then, waveform design is carried out in the stepped-frequency waveform by using a staggered pulse repetition frequency so as to eliminate the high-order phase component that is caused by the target's velocity. Further, the waveform design method is extended to the sparse stepped-frequency waveform, and we also propose corresponding methods for high-resolution range profile synthesis and motion compensation. Finally, experiments with electromagnetic data verify the high Doppler tolerance of the proposed waveform.

Low Probability of Intercept-Based Radar Waveform Design for Spectral Coexistence of Distributed Multiple-Radar and Wireless Communication Systems in Clutter

In this paper, the problem of low probability of intercept (LPI)-based radar waveform design for distributed multiple-radar system (DMRS) is studied, which consists of multiple radars coexisting with a wireless communication system in the same frequency band. The primary objective of the multiple-radar system is to minimize the total transmitted energy by optimizing the transmission waveform of each radar with the communication signals acting as interference to the radar system, while meeting a desired target detection/characterization performance. Firstly, signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratio (SCNR) and mutual information (MI) are used as the practical metrics to evaluate target detection and characterization performance, respectively. Then, the SCNR- and MI-based optimal radar waveform optimization methods are formulated. The resulting waveform optimization problems are solved through the well-known bisection search technique. Simulation results demonstrate utilizing various examples and scenarios that the proposed radar waveform design schemes can evidently improve the LPI performance of DMRS without interfering with friendly communications.

An Adaptive Transmitting Scheme for Interrupted Sampling Repeater Jamming Suppression

The interrupted sampling repeater jamming (ISRJ) based on a digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) device is a new type of coherent jamming. This kind of jamming usually occurs as main-lobe jamming and has the advantages of low power requirements and easy parameter adjustment, posing a serious threat to the modern radar systems. In order to suppress the ISRJ, this paper proposes an adaptive transmitting scheme based on a phase-coded signal. The scheme firstly performs jamming perception to estimate the jamming parameters, then, on this basis, optimizes the waveform with genetic algorithm. With the optimized waveform, the jamming signal is orthogonal to the target echo, thus it can be easily suppressed with pulse compression. Simulation experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness of the scheme and the results suggest that the peak-to-side-lobe ratio (PSR) and integrated side-lobe level (ISL) of the pulse compression can be improved by about 16 dB and 15 dB, respectively, for the case where the jamming-to-signal ratio (JSR) is 13 dB.

Radar Constant-Modulus Waveform Design with Prior Information of the Extended Target and Clutter

Radar waveform design is of great importance for radar system performances and has drawn considerable attention recently. Constant modulus is an important waveform design consideration, both from the point of view of hardware realization and to allow for full utilization of the transmitter’s power. In this paper, we consider the problem of constant-modulus waveform design for extended target detection with prior information about the extended target and clutter. At first, we propose an arbitrary-phase unimodular waveform design method via joint transmitter-receiver optimization. We exploit a semi-definite relaxation technique to transform an intractable non-convex problem into a convex problem, which can then be efficiently solved. Furthermore, quadrature phase shift keying waveform is designed, which is easier to implement than arbitrary-phase waveforms. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Phase-modulated waveform design for extended target detection in the presence of clutter

The problem to be addressed in this paper is a phase-modulated waveform design for the detection of extended targets contaminated by signal-dependent noise (clutter) and additive noise in practical radar systems. An optimal waveform design method that leads to the energy spectral density (ESD) of signal under the maximum signal-to-clutter-and-noise ratio (SCNR) criterion is introduced first. In order to make full use of the transmission power, a novel phase-iterative algorithm is then proposed for designing the phase-modulated waveform with a constant envelope, whose ESD matches the optimal one. This method is proven to be able to achieve a small SCNR loss by minimizing the mean-square spectral distance between the optimal waveform and the designed waveform. The results of extensive simulations demonstrate that our approach provides less than 1 dB SCNR loss when the signal duration is greater than 1 μs, and outperforms the stationary phase method and other phase-modulated waveform design methods.

Extended target recognition in cognitive radar networks

We address the problem of adaptive waveform design for extended target recognition in cognitive radar networks. A closed-loop active target recognition radar system is extended to the case of a centralized cognitive radar network, in which a generalized likelihood ratio (GLR) based sequential hypothesis testing (SHT) framework is employed. Using Doppler velocities measured by multiple radars, the target aspect angle for each radar is calculated. The joint probability of each target hypothesis is then updated using observations from different radar line of sights (LOS). Based on these probabilities, a minimum correlation algorithm is proposed to adaptively design the transmit waveform for each radar in an amplitude fluctuation situation. Simulation results demonstrate performance improvements due to the cognitive radar network and adaptive waveform design. Our minimum correlation algorithm outperforms the eigen-waveform solution and other non-cognitive waveform design approaches.