Proceedings of the 3rd European Radar Conference

Combining MIMO Radar with OFDM Communications

B J Donnet and I D Longstaff

Filtronic Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Queensland, 4172, Australia

Abstract — MIMO radar systems have been proposed N and all carriers are commutated over all transmit elements
elsewhere which utilise OFDM waveforms as the scene to form the full aperture [10] (Fig. 2).
illuminator. This suggests an opportunity exists to code the
OFDM radar waveform in such a way as to provide a Tx 1 f1 f2 f3 fl-1 fl
communication link to broadcast the radar data to remote users.
The benefit of this would arise from the dual use of the Tx 2 f2 f3 f4 fl f1
microwave band, addressing the problem where demand for Tx 3 f3 f4 f5 f1 f2
bandwidth is exceeding capacity. This paper explores the
technical issues associated with this idea and outlines some of the
key features of such a system. We describe how OFDM
waveforms can be applied to MIMO radar; and what constraints Tx n fn fn+1 fn+2 fn-2 fn-1
must be placed on the waveform to ensure robust operation for
Fig. 2 Step-frequency sequence.
both radar and communication functions. A candidate system
design is presented, along with basic analysis of the expected
performance of both radar and communications functionality. The same technique used by OFDM communication
Index Terms — MIMO systems, MIMO radar, phased array systems to separate the sub-carriers can be employed for
radar, radar applications, radio communication. MIMO radar. This suggests that it should be possible, with
appropriate waveform design and signal processing, to
achieve both radar and communications capability using a
I. INTRODUCTION single waveform. In this paper, we propose a technique where
The principle of forming a radar using coherent MIMO radar and communications functionality may be
techniques has been established elsewhere [1][3][10]. The simultaneously achieved.
primary requirement is that each of the M elements of the
transmitter array must emit signals which are separable in II. COMBINED OPERATION
each of the N receiver elements [1][4], allowing the
generation of M¯N data streams corresponding to that The coding applied to the radar waveform must also be
number of synthesised TRx monostatic elements. Some robust to the requirements of the communication function.
MIMO communications systems, such as WiMAX (IEEE For the remainder of this paper, we shall be considering
802.16), use orthogonal frequency division multiplexing BPSK modulated waveforms. BPSK modulation is
(OFDM) waveforms [2] (Fig. 1) to overcome multi-path commonly employed in pulse compression radar waveforms
interference while ensuring separability of each waveform [7]; is less sensitive to Doppler than QAM [9] and is suitable
component. for OFDM communications [6].
1
A. Transmit
0.8
It is important to consider the requirements of the MIMO
0.6
data link when designing the radar waveform. The receiving
0.4 station must be capable of extracting the relative carrier phase
to align the information signal constellation; and the symbol
0.2
period must be robust to multipath interference. Current
0 OFDM communication systems generally use carrier spacings
-0.2
(symbol rates) between 100 Hz and 50 kHz [6], suggesting
that symbol rates significantly higher would not be
-0.4
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 appropriate.
Fig. 1 Example OFDM waveform spectrum. Limiting the OFDM symbol rate to less than 100 kHz
results in a large number of sub-carriers required to cover the
OFDM can be applied to MIMO radar by employing a step- bandwidth of moderate resolution radar. This in turn
frequency technique [11] where any of L OFDM sub-carriers increases the time taken to complete the step-frequency
is transmitted from one of N elements at a time; provided L • sequence. The step-frequency time can be reduced by
transmitting multiple sub-carriers from each element (Fig. 3),

2-9600551-7-9  2006 EuMA 37 September 2006, Manchester UK

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 which happens to solve the problem of aligning the receive
stations. One or more sub-carriers within each cluster
transmitted can be treated as a pilot tone, with data encoded
onto the other sub-carriers; pilot symbols are used at regular
intervals within OFDM communication systems for channel
estimation [12].
f1(pilot) f4(pilot) f7(pilot)
Tx 1 f2(data) f5(data) f8(data)
f3(data) f6(data) f9(data)
f10(pilot) f13(pilot) f16(pilot)
Tx 2 f11(data) f14(data) f17(data)
f12(data) f15(data) f18(data)
Tx N
Fig. 3 Multiple sub-carriers transmitted per element.
The data symbol transmitted on each sub-carrier is used to
determine the receiver matched filter weights. When no
additional sub-carrier pulse compression is used, the “filter
weight” is simply the transmitted symbol; for the case of
BPSK, this corresponds to a phase shift of 0 or π.
B. Receive
The number of receive elements required in the array
depends on the aperture being synthesised and the desired
angular resolution required by the radar. Not all of the
elements are required for the MIMO communication receiver.
Hanlen and Fu [8] have shown that increasing the density of
spatially correlated receive elements does not greatly improve
the MIMO channel capacity.
For example, a MIMO radar with 16 transmit and 64
receive elements can be configured to synthesise a two-
dimensional planar aperture, covering a 90° sector. This
configuration can synthesise 1024 beams [1][10], providing
an aperture gain of approximately 30 dB.
It is important to note that some physical configurations do
not result in N¯M synthesised elements. Some
configurations synthesise multiple elements at common
locations. Only one beam can be formed from these
coincident synthetic elements, as there is no new spatial
information contributed by the other synthetic elements
located at the same position. The only gain from multiple
elements synthesised at a given location is SNR improvement
from independent noise measurements [1].
Only a few, well separated, receive elements need to be
used by the MIMO communication receive function. Data
can be sent to the radar using sub-carriers that are not
currently being used to form the aperture. This facilitates
bidirectional communication using the same microwave band
as the radar; spectral reuse has been identified as an area of
interest in the UK [5].
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III. PERFORMANCE CONSIDERATIONS
The goal of this paper is to describe a coherent MIMO
radar system that is capable of augmenting communications
functionality for distributing the processed radar image using
the same microwave band. As such, spectral efficiency of the
MIMO communication mode will be sub-optimum when
compared with dedicated systems. Elaborate coding schemes
(eg. 64-QAM) have greater spectral efficiency, but are more
susceptible to noise [6] and Doppler shift [9]. This greatly
reduces robustness of the waveform, making it unsuitable for
radar, which is the primary application.
Radar range performance can be enhanced by applying
pulse compression codes to each of the sub-carriers in the
OFDM sequence. The compressed sub-carrier bandwidth
remains the same, with a P-chip code taking P symbol
periods. A sequence with low cross-correlation and low
auto-correlation side-lobes should be used, such as the Barker
code [7] (Fig. 4).
13-bit Barker Code
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
-2
5 10 15 20 25
Fig. 4 13-bit Barker auto-correlation function.
The data symbols to be transmitted can be modulated by the
pulse compression code. As mentioned above, the receiver
matched filter must be adjusted accordingly so that the
samples used for step-frequency pulse compression are not
distorted by the transmitted data signal.
One advantage to the communication function is that the
sub-carrier SNR is improved, reducing the channel bit error
rate. The major drawback to this form of pulse compression
is that the corresponding information rate is reduced by 1/P.
Alternately, the data to be transmitted can be used as the
compression code when the code length is sufficiently long
for the symbol sequence to approximate pseudo-noise. For
example, it can be seen in Fig. 5 that a 200-chip pseudo-
random binary code (generated by rand in Matlab®) can have
a reasonable autocorrelation function.
Radar image data transmitted using the OFDM
communications functionality of the system is distributed
between the transmit elements. The data should have forward
 error coding applied and have bits interleaved between the III. CANDIDATE SYSTEM
transmitters.
A brief outline of a candidate system is detailed below. It is
200-chip data code
120 not a complete system analysis and is only intended to
demonstrate the general principle.
100 Consider a system consisting of 8 transmit elements and 32
receive elements configured to synthesise a two dimensional
80
planar array with 512 synthesised elements/beams [10] (Fig.
6). The physical elements each have 8 dB gain and are
60
suitable for covering a 90° sector.
Tx
40

20
2D Planar Array of
0 Phantom Elements
Tx

-20
50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Fig. 5 200-chip pseudo-random binary sequence auto-correlation

function.

Using symbols transmitted by the communications function Rx Rx Rx Rx

as the weights for matched filtering in the radar receiver
Fig. 6 Two-dimensional planar array configuration (not all
function can result in sub-optimal pulse compression. Not
elements shown).
every data set will be an optimum autocorrelation sequence,
particularly when the code length is short. This will degrade
The modulation is a 512 sub-carrier OFDM using BPSK
the peak-to-sidelobe ratio of the compressed pulse. Long
coding with a total system bandwidth of 40 MHz,
sequences also increase the time required to form the aperture,
corresponding to a range resolution of 3.75 m. This equates
which must be considered when designing the radar.
to a sub-carrier symbol rate of 78.125 kHz, with the OFDM
It can be seen in Fig. 5 that a 200-chip pseudo-random
sequence giving a step-frequency gain of 27 dB. Transmit
binary code achieves a peak-to-side-lobe ratio of
and receive antennas are physically arranged such that the
approximately 7 dB. This is 4 dB worse then the 11 dB
isolation is sufficient to allow CW operation; symbols are
achieved by a 13-chip Barker code shown in Fig. 4.
transmitted continuously.
The waveform needs to be designed such that the total
Each transmit element will utilise 17 sub-carriers at a time,
integration time required to form the aperture is appropriate
with two providing pilot signals and 15 used to transmit the
for the intended targets. For example, it is not suitable to take
radar image data; data is encoded using an (8, 7) error
several seconds to form the aperture when trying to detect
correction code [13]. A 13-bit Barker code will be used for
aircraft, as the target is likely to have moved through several
sub-carrier pulse compression, providing an additional 11 dB
resolution cells.
of gain.
We have established above that multiple sub-carriers need
The transmit elements will each step through the sub-carrier
to be transmitted from each element in order to complete the
set in ascending order, but with each transmitter starting at an
OFDM sequence in a timely manner; and to enable the
offset of 64 carriers from the one before (tx1 Æ f1, f2, …,
communications functionality. The number of sub-carriers
f17; tx2 Æ f65, f66, .. f81; etc). From this we can deduce that
transmitter per element must be kept as low as possible for the
f65, first used by tx2, will be reused by tx1 during the fourth
given application to maximise the amount of power available
iteration of the sequence. Therefore the range ambiguity is
to each step-frequency component.
defined here as three times the iteration period, which is 13
It is not essential that the number of sub-carriers used per
times the symbol period due to the Barker code, equating to
element is a binary power (2, 4, 8, 16, etc) or an integer factor
499.2 μs (74.88 km).
of the sequence length. A non-factorial sub-carrier cluster
It will take a total of 31 iterations for each transmit element
size allows the pilot frequencies to change between aperture
to step through all of the OFDM sub-carriers, although 15 of
formations, enhancing LPI and ECCM characteristics of the
the 17 sub-carriers in the 31st iteration will contribute to
radar. However, additional consideration must be given to the
forming the next aperture. The total time required to form the
data routing and buffering in the receive signal processing.
aperture is 5158.4 μs, which is commensurate with typical
radar single beam dwell times [14].

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 The data throughput of the communication function can be
calculated by multiplying the number of un-encoded bits per
transmit element (8 bits) by the number of transmitters (8) by
the number of sub-carrier steps per second. It is important to
remember that the sub-carrier step rate is 1/13th of the symbol
rate because of the Barker code. This gives an aggregate data
transmission rate of approximately 384.6 kbps, which is
comparable to ADSL broadband and adequate for distributing
processed radar display data. If the Barker code was not
required, a transmission rate of 5 Mbps could be achieved.
Assume each transmitter is capable of 50 W CW centred at
1.4 GHz, providing approximately 3 W per sub-carrier;
receiver noise figure is 3 dB and bandwidth is 40 MHz, giving
a noise floor of -98 dBm; and detection SNR is set to 10 dB.
For the single sub-carrier, single transmit-receive pair,
substituting the above values into the radar range equation
against a 1 m2 target yields a R4 value of 89.3 dB. Adding the
aperture gain of 27 dB, the step-frequency gain of 27 dB and
the pulse compression gain of 11 dB gives a total R4 value of
154.3 dB. The resulting expected range performance is
therefore 7.2 km against a 1 m2 target.
It is important to note that the aperture gain can only be
applied once, as it is a signal processing gain and not a
physical element gain. However, all 512 beams in the 90°
sector have been formed during the 5.16 ms dwell time. An
equivalent filled aperture phased array using classical beam-
forming would only have approximately 10 μs dwell time to
cover the same volume in the given time.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper we have presented a technique that enables
coherent MIMO radar to distribute its processed image data to
remote users using the radar waveform. Issues relating to
waveform design and signal processing were raised with
possible tradeoffs presented. Although some additional
constraints are placed on the radar waveform and signal
processing, this technique provides a means for augmenting
communication functionality without adversely affecting radar
performance. The communication mechanism may be far
from optimum in terms of spectral efficiency and net data rate,
but still provides and adequate link with the advantage of not
requiring additional bandwidth.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research forms part of an ongoing development
programme at Filtronic (Australia). The authors wish to
acknowledge the assistance and support of Filtronic and the
Filtronic (Australia) engineering team.
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