Slow-Time Mitigation of Mutual Interference in Chirp Sequence Radar

Abstract

Automotive radars are increasingly used for safety-critical advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving applications. Due to unregulated waveforms in the automotive frequency bands, mutual interference between radar-equipped vehicles is becoming a key issue, as it can lead to significant losses of sensor performance. In this work, a novel mutual interference model and a subsequent mitigation method are introduced for chirp sequence radars. The method integrates well into the conventional range-Doppler processing chain, and enables control over the inherent trade-off between interference suppression and signal distortion. Its properties are discussed using extensive simulations within a statistical performance analysis framework. In the investigated scenarios, the method achieved an improvement in detection performance without introducing false alarms.