Demonstrating the limitations on target detection (Pd) and false alarm control (Pfa) due to cross-correlated interference in a bistatic / multistatic radar

Abstract

The goal of this research is to develop a method that allows for processing of bistatic marine radar signals, in order to demonstrate an improvement in target detection (Pd) and false alarm control (Pfa) in systems limited by cross-correlated interference. In this work, a method is presented for coherent processing of signals from a bistatic magnetron oscillator based marine radar. The feasibility of this approach was previously demonstrated for a monostatic radar through a hardware modification that allowed for capture of data via a Xilinx ADC and processing in FPGAs. It is demonstrated here that operating two of radars in this manner and combining their resulting signals allows for an improvement in overall detection and track. Our approach works by sampling the transmitted and received signals at each radar. Cross-correlations between all four combinations of transmitted and received signals are used to demonstrate the limits due to mutual interference in a bistatic/multistatic system of radars. This processing is successfully demonstrated in software, showing the potential for coherency between two marine radars. In general, bistatic coherent radars are very expensive, and this work provides a method for achieving the equivalent coherent performance using a two modified non-coherent radar systems.