A novel barker code algorithm for resolving range ambiguity in high PRF radars

Abstract

Several algorithms are currently provided to alleviate effects of range overlaid echoes and velocity aliasing in the radar. In this paper, a novel and simple, yet very effective method based on Barker code is presented to solve the range ambiguity problem in high PRF radars. The novelty of this algorithm is derived from the fact that each transmitted pulse is coded with a different circular shifted version of Barker code of length four. Encoding the transmitted pulses in such a way provides the receiver of the potential to resolve up to four overlaid pulses. The direct consequence of this capability is the augmentation of the unambiguous range up to four times. On the top of that, the traditional goal of using the Barker code namely, enhancing the range resolution of the radar is still maintained. To prove the superiority of our algorithm over the existing algorithms in the literature, we conduct some simulations in the context of weather radars. The results indicate obviously that our algorithm outperforms the SZ phase coding technique. The latter has been considered as the one that yields the best performance among its competitors within the family of phase coding techniques.