Synchronization of Long-Range, Widely-Separated MIMO Radar Network using GSM Protocol

Multi-static and MIMO radars have opened up new horizons of research as they offer diversified degrees of freedom and arbitrary geometrical patterns. The biggest hurdle that such a system can face at implementation level is the synchronization of this distributed system. Use of GPS atomic clock, although quite accurate, is considered to be an expensive option for low cost distributed radar solutions. In this paper, we propose a simple, cost effective yet accurate scheme for synchronizing a long-range, low to medium PRF bi-static radar system using GSM technology. The concept can easily be extended to multi-static radar networks. The proposed system achieves a temporal resolution of tens of micro seconds and thus can be used in a large number of radar applications.