Orthogonal netted radar systems

Abstract

An ONRS is a radar networking system consisting of multiple pulse compression radars with each transmitting a distinct coding signal exclusively from a group of orthogonal coding waveforms and equipped with a bank of parallel matched filters. The fundamental difference between ONRS and traditional netted radar systems is that ONRS is capable of operating as monostatic radars and multistatic radars simultaneously, to maximally increase the number of target echoes and thus to achieve much better radar performance through target information fusion processing. It has been further illustrated that the application of ONRS will not only significantly improve radar performance in target detection, measurement, and recognition, but also greatly enhance radar capabilities in countering anti-radar techniques such as ARM, high-speed highly-maneuvering targets, stealth targets, and electronic countermeasures. The key technologies and challenges for implementing ONRS have been identified as orthogonal coding signal design, interference rejection, overcoming Doppler shift effect, improving search efficiency, and optimizing ONRS configuration. An ONRS can be conveniently constructed from multiple slightly-modified monostatic radars, which renders the real-time formulation of m Ad-Hoc ONRS possible. Because ONRS is structurally compatible with traditional monostatic radar and have the potential to significantly improve radar performance, we expect that ONRS will become one of the most important forms of radar sensor in the near future.