GNU Radio based software-defined FMCW radar for weather surveillance application

Abstract

In this paper, a GNU Radio based software-defined FMCW (Frequency Modulated — Continuous Wave) radar is studied for weather surveillance application. The FMCW radar that has been gaining popularity due to the use of solid state microwave amplifier to generate a signal source is proposed for the design since the current weather surveillance radar is usually using a pulse-radar type that needs high power in pulse generation and high cost in the deployment. In addition, by using software-defined radar, therefore the designed FMCW radar can be implemented and configured at a reduced cost and complexity. The FMCW radar prototype is implemented using both open sources of software and hardware. The software part of the radar is realized using GNU Radio, whilst the hardware part is implemented using USRP (Universal Software Radio Peripheral) N210. Based on the design specification, an FMCW radar prototype based on GNU Radio is then realized and examined. From the performance-test, the prototype that works at a center frequency of 2.1GHz with a bandwidth of 750kHz is able to perform range detection of targets after utilizing the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) function using MATLAB. In addition, the discussion of system design of software defined FMCW radar and performance-test of its prototype are presented.