Space-Time Transmit-Receive Design for Colocated MIMO Radar

This chapter deals with the design of multiple input multiple-output (MIMO) radar space-time transmit code (STTC) and space-time receive filter (STRF) to enhance moving targets detection in the presence of signal-dependent interferences, where we assume that some knowledge of target and clutter statistics are available for MIMO radar system according to a cognitive paradigm by using a site-specific (possible dynamic) environment database. Thus, an iterative sequential optimization algorithm with ensuring the convergence is proposed to maximize the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) under the similarity and constant modulus constraints on the probing waveform. In particular, each iteration of the proposed algorithm requires to solve the hidden convex problems. The computational complexity is linear with the number of iterations and polynomial with the sizes of the STTW and the STRF. Finally, the gain and the computation time of the proposed algorithm also compared with the available methods are evaluated

Mathematical optimization and game theoretic methods for radar networks

Radar systems are undoubtedly included in the hall of the most momentous discoveries of the previous century. Although radars were initially used for ship and aircraft detection, nowadays these systems are used in highly diverse fields, expanding from civil aviation, marine navigation and air-defence to ocean surveillance, meteorology and medicine. Recent advances in signal processing and the constant development of computational capabilities led to radar systems with impressive surveillance and tracking characteristics but on the other hand the continuous growth of distributed networks made them susceptible to multisource interference. This thesis aims at addressing vulnerabilities of modern radar networks and further improving their characteristics through the design of signal processing algorithms and by utilizing convex optimization and game theoretic methods. In particular, the problems of beamforming, power allocation, jammer avoidance and uncertainty within the context of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar networks are addressed. In order to improve the beamforming performance of phased-array and MIMO radars employing two-dimensional arrays of antennas, a hybrid two-dimensional Phased-MIMO radar with fully overlapped subarrays is proposed. The work considers both adaptive (convex optimization, CAPON beamformer) and non-adaptive (conventional) beamforming techniques. The transmit, receive and overall beampatterns of the Phased-MIMO model are compared with the respective beampatterns of the phased-array and the MIMO schemes, proving that the hybrid model provides superior capabilities in beamforming. By incorporating game theoretic techniques in the radar field, various vulnerabilities and problems can be investigated. Hence, a game theoretic power allocation scheme is proposed and a Nash equilibrium analysis for a multistatic MIMO network is performed. A network of radars is considered, organized into multiple clusters, whose primary objective is to minimize their transmission power, while satisfying a certain detection criterion. Since no communication between the clusters is assumed, non-cooperative game theoretic techniques and convex optimization methods are utilized to tackle the power adaptation problem. During the proof of the existence and the uniqueness of the solution, which is also presented, important contributions on the SINR performance and the transmission power of the radars have been derived. Game theory can also been applied to mitigate jammer interference in a radar network. Hence, a competitive power allocation problem for a MIMO radar system in the presence of multiple jammers is investigated. The main objective of the radar network is to minimize the total power emitted by the radars while achieving a specific detection criterion for each of the targets-jammers, while the intelligent jammers have the ability to observe the radar transmission power and consequently decide its jamming power to maximize the interference to the radar system. In this context, convex optimization methods, noncooperative game theoretic techniques and hypothesis testing are incorporated to identify the jammers and to determine the optimal power allocation. Furthermore, a proof of the existence and the uniqueness of the solution is presented. Apart from resource allocation applications, game theory can also address distributed beamforming problems. More specifically, a distributed beamforming and power allocation technique for a radar system in the presence of multiple targets is considered. The primary goal of each radar is to minimize its transmission power while attaining an optimal beamforming strategy and satisfying a certain detection criterion for each of the targets. Initially, a strategic noncooperative game (SNG) is used, where there is no communication between the various radars of the system. Subsequently, a more coordinated game theoretic approach incorporating a pricing mechanism is adopted. Furthermore, a Stackelberg game is formulated by adding a surveillance radar to the system model, which will play the role of the leader, and thus the remaining radars will be the followers. For each one of these games, a proof of the existence and uniqueness of the solution is presented. In the aforementioned game theoretic applications, the radars are considered to know the exact radar cross section (RCS) parameters of the targets and thus the exact channel gains of all players, which may not be feasible in a real system. Therefore, in the last part of this thesis, uncertainty regarding the channel gains among the radars and the targets is introduced, which originates from the RCS fluctuations of the targets. Bayesian game theory provides a framework to address such problems of incomplete information. Hence, a Bayesian game is proposed, where each radar egotistically maximizes its SINR, under a predefined power constraint

Complexity Reduction in Beamforming of Uniform Array Antennas for MIMO Radars

Covariance matrix design and beamforming in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar systems have always been a time-consuming task with a substantial number of unknown variables in the optimization problem to be solved. Based on the radar and target conditions, beamforming can be a dynamic process and in real-time scenarios, it is critical to have a fast beamforming. In this paper, we propose a beampattern matching design technique that is much faster compared to the well-known traditional semidefinite quadratic programming (SQP) counterpart. We show how to calculate the covariance matrix of the probing transmitted signal to obtain the MIMO radar desired beampattern, using a facilitator library. While the proposed technique inherently satisfies the required practical constraints in covariance matrix design, it significantly reduces the number of unknown variables used in the minimum square error (MSE) optimization problem, and therefore reduces the computational complexity considerably. Simulation results show the superiority of the proposed technique in terms of complexity and speed, compared with existing methods. This superiority is enhanced by increasing the number of antennas

Information Theoretic Approach for Waveform Design in Coexisting MIMO Radar and MIMO Communications

We investigate waveform design for coexistence between a multipleinput multiple-output (MIMO) radar and MIMO communications (MRMC), with a radar-centric criterion that leads to a minimal interference in the communications system. The communications use the traditional mode of operation in Long Term Evolution (LTE)/Advanced (FDD), where we formulate the design problem based on information-theoretic criterion with the discrete phase constraint at the design stage. The optimization problem, is nonconvex, multi-objective and multi-variable, where we propose an efficient algorithm based on the coordinate descent (CD) framework to simultaneously improve radar target detection performance and the communications rate. The numerical results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in designing discrete phase set of sequences, potentially binary

Mathematical optimization techniques for cognitive radar networks

This thesis discusses mathematical optimization techniques for waveform design in cognitive radars. These techniques have been designed with an increasing level of sophistication, starting from a bistatic model (i.e. two transmitters and a single receiver) and ending with a cognitive network (i.e. multiple transmitting and multiple receiving radars). The environment under investigation always features strong signal-dependent clutter and noise. All algorithms are based on an iterative waveform-filter optimization. The waveform optimization is based on convex optimization techniques and the exploitation of initial radar waveforms characterized by desired auto and cross-correlation properties. Finally, robust optimization techniques are introduced to account for the assumptions made by cognitive radars on certain second order statistics such as the covariance matrix of the clutter. More specifically, initial optimization techniques were proposed for the case of bistatic radars. By maximizing the signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) under certain constraints on the transmitted signals, it was possible to iteratively optimize both the orthogonal transmission waveforms and the receiver filter. Subsequently, the above work was extended to a convex optimization framework for a waveform design technique for bistatic radars where both radars transmit and receive to detect targets. The method exploited prior knowledge of the environment to maximize the accumulated target return signal power while keeping the disturbance power to unity at both radar receivers. The thesis further proposes convex optimization based waveform designs for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) based cognitive radars. All radars within the system are able to both transmit and receive signals for detecting targets. The proposed model investigated two complementary optimization techniques. The first one aims at optimizing the signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) of a specific radar while keeping the SINR of the remaining radars at desired levels. The second approach optimizes the SINR of all radars using a max-min optimization criterion. To account for possible mismatches between actual parameters and estimated ones, this thesis includes robust optimization techniques. Initially, the multistatic, signal-dependent model was tested against existing worst-case and probabilistic methods. These methods appeared to be over conservative and generic for the considered signal-dependent clutter scenario. Therefore a new approach was derived where uncertainty was assumed directly on the radar cross-section and Doppler parameters of the clutters. Approximations based on Taylor series were invoked to make the optimization problem convex and {subsequently} determine robust waveforms with specific SINR outage constraints. Finally, this thesis introduces robust optimization techniques for through-the-wall radars. These are also cognitive but rely on different optimization techniques than the ones previously discussed. By noticing the similarities between the minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) problem and the matched-illumination one, this thesis introduces robust optimization techniques that consider uncertainty on environment-related parameters. Various performance analyses demonstrate the effectiveness of all the above algorithms in providing a significant increase in SINR in an environment affected by very strong clutter and noise

Coexistence Designs of Radar and Communication Systems in a Multi-path Scenario

The focus of this study is on the spectrum sharing between multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications and co-located MIMO radar systems in multi-path environments. The major challenge is to suppress the mutual interference between the two systems while combining the useful multi-path components received at each system. We tackle this challenge by jointly designing the communication precoder, radar transmit waveform and receive filter. Specifically, the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the radar receiver is maximized subject to constraints on the radar waveform, communication rate and transmit power. The multi-path propagation complicates the expressions of the radar SINR and communication rate, leading to a non-convex problem. To solve it, a sub-optimal algorithm based on the alternating maximization is used to optimize the precoder, radar transmit waveform and receive filter iteratively. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design

Radar Signal Processing for Interference Mitigation

It is necessary for radars to suppress interferences to near the noise level to achieve the best performance in target detection and measurements. In this dissertation work, innovative signal processing approaches are proposed to effectively mitigate two of the most common types of interferences: jammers and clutter. Two types of radar systems are considered for developing new signal processing algorithms: phased-array radar and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar. For phased-array radar, an innovative target-clutter feature-based recognition approach termed as Beam-Doppler Image Feature Recognition (BDIFR) is proposed to detect moving targets in inhomogeneous clutter. Moreover, a new ground moving target detection algorithm is proposed for airborne radar. The essence of this algorithm is to compensate for the ground clutter Doppler shift caused by the moving platform and then to cancel the Doppler-compensated clutter using MTI filters that are commonly used in ground-based radar systems. Without the need of clutter estimation, the new algorithms outperform the conventional Space-Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) algorithm in ground moving target detection in inhomogeneous clutter. For MIMO radar, a time-efficient reduced-dimensional clutter suppression algorithm termed as Reduced-dimension Space-time Adaptive Processing (RSTAP) is proposed to minimize the number of the training samples required for clutter estimation. To deal with highly heterogeneous clutter more effectively, we also proposed a robust deterministic STAP algorithm operating on snapshot-to-snapshot basis. For cancelling jammers in the radar mainlobe direction, an innovative jamming elimination approach is proposed based on coherent MIMO radar adaptive beamforming. When combined with mutual information (MI) based cognitive radar transmit waveform design, this new approach can be used to enable spectrum sharing effectively between radar and wireless communication systems. The proposed interference mitigation approaches are validated by carrying out simulations for typical radar operation scenarios. The advantages of the proposed interference mitigation methods over the existing signal processing techniques are demonstrated both analytically and empirically

Joint Design of Space-Time Transmit and Receive Weights for Colocated MIMO Radar

Compared with single-input multiple-output (SIMO) radar, colocated multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar can detect moving targets better by adopting waveform diversity. When the colocated MIMO radar transmits a set of orthogonal waveforms, the transmit weights are usually set equal to one, and the receive weights are adaptively adjusted to suppress clutter based on space-time adaptive processing technology. This paper proposes the joint design of space-time transmit and receive weights for colocated MIMO radar. The approach is based on the premise that all possible moving targets are detected by setting a lower threshold. In each direction where there may be moving targets, the space-time transmit and receive weights can be iteratively updated by using the proposed approach to improve the output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), which is helpful to improve the precision of target detection. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method improves the output SINR by greater than 13 dB

Suppression approach to main-beam deceptive jamming in FDA-MIMO radar using nonhomogeneous sample detection

Suppressing the main-beam deceptive jamming in traditional radar systems is challenging. Furthermore, the observations corrupted by false targets generated by smart deceptive jammers, which are not independent and identically distributed because of the pseudo-random time delay. This in turn complicates the task of jamming suppression. In this paper, a new main-beam deceptive jamming suppression approach is proposed, using nonhomogeneous sample detection in the frequency diverse array-multiple-input and multiple-output radar with non-perfectly orthogonal waveforms. First, according to the time delay or range difference, the true and false targets are discriminated in the joint transmit-receive spatial frequency domain. Subsequently, due to the range mismatch, the false targets are suppressed through a transmit-receive 2-D matched filter. In particular, in order to obtain the jamming-plus-noise covariance matrix with high accuracy, a nonhomogeneous sample detection method is developed. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the detection performance of the proposed approach