Mainlobe Interference Suppression for Radar Network via RPCA-Based Covariance Matrix Reconstruction

Abstract

Radar networks can provide spatial diversity by observing targets from different perspectives with adequately separated receiving stations. This article proposes a mainlobe interference suppression approach for radar networks based on covariance matrix reconstruction. First, we formulate the mainlobe interference suppression under multiradar configuration as a multichannel signal enhancement problem and perform range and Doppler equalization to improve interferences’ spatial correlation. Then, we estimate the signal and interference covariance matrix from the sampling covariance matrix by solving a robust principal component analysis (RPCA) model. After that, we devise a time-domain-constrained (TDC) linear estimator dependent on the reconstructed covariance matrices to enhance target echo. To remove those duplicate false targets caused by signal enhancement and estimate the state of the physical targets, we establish and solve a generalized multiple measurement vector (GMMV) model based on the fact that targets have unique locations in the state space. Finally, we confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach with numerical experiments and demonstrate better performance in comparison with the subspace projection method.