Short-range passive radar for small private airports surveillance

This paper investigates the effectiveness of a passive radar for enhancing the security level in small airports and private runways. Specifically WiFi transmissions are parasitically exploited to perform detection and localization of non-cooperative targets that can be occupying the runway and the surrounding areas. Targets of interest include light/ultralight aircrafts, vehicles, people and even animals that may intrude onto the runways either intentionally or accidentally. The experimental results obtained by means of an experimental setup developed at SAPIENZA University of Rome prove the successful applicability of the proposed approach for small airports surveillance. © 2016 EuMA

WiFi-based PCL for monitoring private airfields

In this article, the potential exploitation of WiFi-based PCL systems is investigated with reference to a real-world civil application in which these sensors are expected to nicely complement the existing technologies adopted for monitoring purposes, especially when operating against noncooperative targets. In particular, we consider the monitoring application of small private airstrips or airfields. With this terminology, we refer to open areas designated for the takeoff and landing of small aircrafts that, unlike an airport, have generally short and possibly unpaved runways (e.g., grass, dirt, sand, or gravel surfaces) and do not necessarily have terminals. More important, such areas usually are devoid of conventional technologies, equipment, or procedures adopted to guarantee safety and security in large aerodromes.There exist a huge number of small, privately owned, and unlicensed airfields around the world. Private aircraft owners mainly use these “airports” for recreational, single-person, or private flights for small groups and training flight purposes. In addition, residential airparks have proliferated in recent years, especially inthe United States, Canada, and South Africa. A residential airpark, or “fly-in community,” features common airstrips where homes with attached hangars allow owners to taxi from their hangar to a shared runway. In many cases, roads are dual use for both cars and planes.In such scenarios, the possibility to employ low-cost, compact, nonintrusive, and nontransmitting sensors as a way to improve safety and security with limited impact on the airstrips' users would be of great potential interest. To this purpose, WiFi-based passive radar sensors appear to be good candidates [23]. Therefore, we investigate their application against typical operative conditions experienced in the scenarios described earlier. The aim is to assess the capability to detect, localize, and track authorized and unauthorized targets that can be occupying the runway and the surrounding areas

Passive Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging Using Commercial OFDM Communication Networks

Modern communication systems provide myriad opportunities for passive radar applications. OFDM is a popular waveform used widely in wireless communication networks today. Understanding the structure of these networks becomes critical in future passive radar systems design and concept development. This research develops collection and signal processing models to produce passive SAR ground images using OFDM communication networks. The OFDM-based WiMAX network is selected as a relevant example and is evaluated as a viable source for radar ground imaging. The monostatic and bistatic phase history models for OFDM are derived and validated with experimental single dimensional data. An airborne passive collection model is defined and signal processing approaches are proposed providing practical solutions to passive SAR imaging scenarios. Finally, experimental SAR images using general OFDM and WiMAX waveforms are shown to validate the overarching signal processing concept

IRCI Free Range Reconstruction for SAR Imaging with Arbitrary Length OFDM Pulse

Our previously proposed OFDM with sufficient cyclic prefix (CP) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging algorithm is inter-range-cell interference (IRCI) free and achieves ideally zero range sidelobes for range reconstruction. In this OFDM SAR imaging algorithm, the minimum required CP length is almost equal to the number of range cells in a swath, while the number of subcarriers of an OFDM signal needs to be more than the CP length. This makes the length of a transmitted OFDM sequence at least almost twice of the number of range cells in a swath and for a wide swath imaging, the transmitted OFDM pulse length becomes long, which may cause problems in some radar applications. In this paper, we propose a CP based OFDM SAR imaging with arbitrary pulse length, which has IRCI free range reconstruction and its pulse length is independent of a swath width. We then present a novel design method for our proposed arbitrary length OFDM pulses. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the performances of the OFDM pulse design and the arbitrary pulse length CP based OFDM SAR imaging.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures, regular pape

Ambiguity Function Analysis and Direct-Path Signal Filtering of the Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) Waveform for Passive Coherent Location (PCL)

This research presents an ambiguity function analysis of the digital audio broadcast (DAB) waveform and one signal detection approach based on signal space projection techniques that effectively filters the direct-path signal from the receiver target channel. Currently, most Passive Coherent Location (PCL) research efforts are focused and based on frequency modulated (FM) radio broadcasts and analog television (TV) waveforms. One active area of PCL research includes the search for new waveforms of opportunity that can be exploited for PCL applications. As considered for this research, one possible waveform of opportunity is the European digital radio standard DAB. For this research, the DAB performance is analyzed for application as a PCL waveform of opportunity. For this analysis, DAB ambiguity function calculations and ambiguity surface plots are created and evaluated. Signal detection capability, to include characterization of time-delay and Doppler-shift measurement accuracy and resolution, is investigated and determined to be quite acceptable for the DAB wavefor

DVB-T-Based passive forward scatter radar: Inherent limitations and enabling solutions

This article investigates the target detection capability of a passive forward scatter radar (PFSR) exploiting a digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T) transmitter as illuminator of opportunity. By means of theoretical and simulated analyses, it is shown that conventional processing schemes might suffer from significant performance degradation when exploiting orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveforms of opportunity compared to other broadcast transmissions (e.g., frequency modulation radio broadcast). Specifically, the direct application of conventional processing approaches to the case of a DVB-T PFSR is demonstrated to yield: 1) a nonnegligible increase of the competing background level and 2) a steeper fading of the target response due to the intrinsic characteristics of the exploited waveforms of opportunity, above all the modulation scheme and the signal spectral characteristics. Therefore, appropriate signal processing techniques are proposed to avoid these effects which jeopardize the target detection capability. The conceived processing scheme exploits the digital nature of the employed waveforms and a subband approach for improving both the interference cancellation stage and the target signature extraction. The benefits of the proposed approach are illustrated by means of theoretical and simulated analyses. The application of the resulting processing scheme against experimental data proves its effectiveness in practical scenarios

A practical bistatic passive radar system for use with DAB and DRM illuminators

Digital broadcasts provide powerful illuminators of opportunity with waveforms that produce excellent radar ambiguity functions. An experimental program to investigate the possibility of such broadcasts for target tracking radar is described. In addition, the atmospheric monitoring possibilities for such broadcasts are discussed.C.J.Coleman, R.A.Watson, and H.Yardle

Target DoA estimation in passive radar using non-uniform linear arrays and multiple frequency channels

In this paper we present a robust approach for target direction of arrival (DoA) estimation in passive radar that jointly exploits spatial and frequency diversity. Specifically we refer to a DVB-T based passive radar receiver equipped with a linear array of few antenna elements non-uniformly spaced in the horizontal dimension, able to collect multiple DVB-T channels simultaneously. We resort to a maximum likelihood (ML) approach to jointly exploit the target echoes collected across the antenna elements at multiple carrier frequencies. Along with an expected improvement in terms of DoA estimation accuracy, we show that the available spatial and frequency diversity can be fruitfully exploited to extend the unambiguous angular sector useful for DoA estimation, which represent an invaluable tool in many applications. To this purpose, a performance analysis is reported against experimental data collected by a multi-channel DVB-T based passive radar developed by Leonardo S.p.A