A vector channel approach to waveform design for radar systems

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the problem of radar waveform design from a new perspective that is based on a vector channel model for the radar system. For a single waveform/single target scenario we show that the capacity of the radar vector channel is identical to the mutual information between the target impulse response and the received radar signal. Noting that a water-filling strategy in designing the transmitted waveform implies maximizing channel capacity, we acknowledge previous results on radar waveform design which proved that water-filling maximizes the mutual information between a target impulse response and the received radar signal. We then discuss the radar waveform design problem in the context of multiple waveforms and/or multiple targets, outlining similarities between the corresponding radar scenarios and multiuser communication scenarios.