Waveform Design for Netted Colocated MIMO Radar Systems With Practical Constraints

Abstract

This article investigates the problem of transmit (Tx) waveform design for netted colocated multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radar systems to enhance the performance of target detection under clutter or signal-dependent interference. In order to ensure hardware compatibility and good pulse compression performance, we consider optimizing the signal-to-clutter-and-noise ratio (SCNR) and waveform ambiguity behavior of each Tx node under the constant-modulus constraint. In addition, the spectrum of each transmitter is restricted to guarantee that the angular waveforms from different Tx nodes have low cross correlation levels. The resultant problem is a nonconvex optimization problem, which is hard to solve directly. Through an equivalent reformulation of the original problem, we propose an effective iteration method that involves solving a series of convexified subproblems. We further provide an approach to design a desired reference waveform. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is verified by numerical examples.