Waveform Selection For Multi-Band Multistatic Radar Networks

This study investigates the benefits of waveform selection by exploiting multiple illuminators of opportunity (IO) in hybrid radar systems consisting of multi-band receivers which can utilise active radar transmitters and broadcasting signals for bistatic radar sensing. As a performance metric, Cramér-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) on velocity and range estimations are considered. Considering that TV and radio broadcasting stations usually emit high power signals, they are suitable for passive sensing as IOs. Therefore, FM radio, Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial (DVB-T) and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) transmitters are considered for passive radar operations while also having an active radar transmitter in the multistatic radar network. Multistatic radar networks comprising receivers, transmitter and IOs transmitting the aforementioned waveforms are modelled and optimum selection of bistatic pairs are studied based on CRLBs on range and velocity estimations. Two different multistatic radar network scenarios are simulated and the results are evaluated to analyse the estimation accuracy of active and passive bistatic pairs in the network. The results show that multi-band multistatic radar network provides better range and velocity estimations and may also mitigate the adverse effects of jamming by exploiting broadcasting waveforms compared to a radar network which only considers radar transmitters for sensing.