Range and velocity estimations in multi-band hybrid multistatic radar networks

Abstract

This study investigates the benefits of exploiting multiple illuminators of opportunity (IOs) in hybrid radar systems consisting of multi-band receivers that can utilise active radar waveforms and broadcasting signals for multistatic radar sensing. As a performance metric, Cramér-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) on the range and velocity estimations are considered. FM radio, Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial (DVB-T) and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) transmitters are considered as IOs for passive radar sensing while also having an active radar transmitter in the multistatic radar network. The multistatic radar networks consisting of receivers, transmitters and IOs are modelled and simulated and CRLBs on the range and velocity estimations are calculated. Two different multistatic radar network scenarios are simulated and the results are evaluated to analyse the estimation accuracy of active and passive bistatic pairs. The results show that a multi-band multistatic radar network can provide better range and velocity estimations by exploiting IO signals compared to a radar network that only uses traditional active radar waveforms.L i,j