Arrayed MIMO Radar

MIMO radar is an emerging technology that is attracting the attention of both researchers and practitioners, which employs multiple transmit signals and has the ability to jointly process signals received at multiple receive antennas. In this report, the various MIMO radar configurations are defined and discussed. Motivated by its suitability for the direct application of powerful modern digital array signal processing techniques, the collocated arrays configuration is chosen as the focus of this report. From this basis, a detailed discussion of performance bounds in array processing is developed. The parameter C is introduced as a figure of merit for comparing the performances of practical direction-finding (DF) algorithms in terms of their superresolution capabilities. C takes values between 0 and 1, with higher values indicating better resolving capability and C = 1 denotes an algorithm with the theoretically ideal resolution performance. Analytical expressions for C can be derived for a number of DF algorithms. In this report, three such expressions are derived for MUSIC, ‘optimal’Beamspace MUSIC and Minimum Norm. It is found that optimal beamspace MUSIC yields the smallest resolution separation, which can approach the ideal when incident signals have equal powers. Some preliminary work related to an investigation into the role of complex correlation coeffi cient is presented. In particular, the 2-emitter CRB is derived for arbitrary correlation, and an accessible discussion of the spatial smoothing technique is presented. Finally, a variety of important topics for significant future research are identified, emphasising the wide-ranging potential for useful ongoing research contribution in the field of MIMO radar.