This thesis reports on research into the field of multiband Passive Bistatic Radar (PBR).
The work is based on the premise that it is possible to improve on the PBR range resolution
by exploiting the full broadcasted bandwidth from transmitters of opportunity. This
work comprises both Frequency Modulated (FM) radio and Digital Video Broadcast -
Terrestrial (DVB-T) waveforms. The work shows how the exploitation of the available
frequency scattered bandwidth broadcasted from single broadcast towers can be achieved
by coherently by combining each of the individual channels/bands, and that the range
resolution is improved accordingly.
The major contributions of this thesis may be divided into the following parts: Hardware
(HW) design and development, algorithm development, simulations, real target data
analysis, and finally non-cooperative target recognition and High Range Resolution (HRR)
considerations.
The work comprises simple PBR performance predictions for various strong transmitters
of opportunity in the southeastern parts of Norway. Hardware for data recording was
designed, produced and made working.
The mathematics for coherently combining non-adjacent single channels/bands in the
range correlation was developed. The range resolution performance of the algorithm was
supported by theoretical simulations using pseudo random generated signals, as well as
simulations using real recorded FM radio and DVB-T signals from nearby strong transmitters.
For FM radio and DVB-T airliners and for DVB-T also a propeller aircraft were analyzed.
The theoretical claims were supported by the real life target analysis, as the range
resolution was improved as predicted for all targets. For the DVB-T waveform, an analysis
of the HRR profiles showed that two targets of different type was manually classified as
targets of different type.
This work has fully closed the circle from idea, HW design, development and testing,
theoretical algorithm development and simulations, and finally real world performance
analysis as well as target analysis
