Multifunction phased array radars (MPARs) exploit the intrinsic flexibility
of their active electronically steered array (ESA) to perform, at the same
time, a multitude of operations, such as search, tracking, fire control,
classification, and communications. This paper aims at addressing the MPAR
resource allocation so as to satisfy the quality of service (QoS) demanded by
both line of sight (LOS) and non line of sight (NLOS) search operations along
with communications tasks. To this end, the ranges at which the cumulative
detection probability and the channel capacity per bandwidth reach a desired
value are introduced as task quality metrics for the search and communication
functions, respectively. Then, to quantify the satisfaction level of each task,
for each of them a bespoke utility function is defined to map the associated
quality metric into the corresponding perceived utility. Hence, assigning
different priority weights to each task, the resource allocation problem, in
terms of radar power aperture (PAP) specification, is formulated as a
constrained optimization problem whose solution optimizes the global radar QoS.
Several simulations are conducted in scenarios of practical interest to prove
the effectiveness of the approach.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figure