Using filter bank multicarrier signals for radar imaging

Abstract

This paper presents an adaption of a joint OFDM communication and radar system to filter bank multicarrier signals. Our results show that any signal which can be represented as a matrix of symbols spread out in the time-frequency domain in a regular fashion can be processed in the same way, making the results obtained from OFDM radar research applicable to FBMC radar. For OFDM, it was shown that the two-dimensional periodogram is a robust and optimal way to obtain a range-Doppler plane; this method can also be applied to FBMC radar. However, the absence of a cyclic prefix in FBMC modulated signals entails a faster deorthogonalisation of the received symbol for targets with a high range. This is mitigated by the higher processing gain in FBMC radar and the exploitation of the intrinsic interference.