Target location and velocity estimation with the multistatic MU-MIMO-OFDM modulation signal

Abstract

In passive radar and joint communication and radar sensing (JCRS), target sensing with the multiuser multiple input multiple output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MU-MIMO-OFDM) modulation signal is gaining increasing interest. Multiple transmit nodes emitting the MU-MIMO-OFDM modulation signals at the same carrier frequency and one receiver collecting the target-reflected signals for target location and velocity estimation are considered. This is a typical scenario when using the fifth-generation (5G) communication network signal for target sensing. In this scenario, the echo signals corresponding to different transmit nodes are not resolved in the receiver, and the modulated data symbols cannot be removed from the received signals. Most traditional parameter estimation methods in passive radar and JCRS may not be suitable here. A location and velocity estimation method with the received echo signals is proposed. Specifically, the location parameters are extracted directly from the received echo signals. The location estimation is cast into a block sparse vector reconstruction problem. The variational Bayesian sparsity learning (VBSL) method is exploited for the reconstruction of the block sparse vector. Accelerated VBSL methods are developed for improving the computational efficiency. Simulations verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods.