Detecting drones and human beings with DVB-S based COTS passive radar for short-range surveillance

Abstract

This work addresses the exploitation of Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite (DVB-S) signals as sources of opportunity for the surveillance of small targets in the proximity of critical infrastructures. A performance analysis has been carried out and it is reported to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed system. Then, a preliminary experimental validation is performed using data collected by means of a low cost COTS based multi-polarimetric receiver to detect small and close targets, as drones and human beings. We present promising experimental results that show the capability of the proposed system to perform the desired task and, potentially, the opportunity to gain more information on the target motion based on its Doppler signature.