A Novel DCSK-Based Linear Frequency Modulation Waveform Design for Joint Radar and Communication Systems

The joint radar and communication (JRC) system is an appealing technology that integrates communication and radar sensing functionalities onto a single hardware equipment. The JRC system’s appeal largely stems from its compact form, reduced power demands, and cost-efficiency. Within this context, we present a novel differential chaos shift keying-based linear frequency modulation waveform design (DCSK-LFM) to execute both communication and radar sensing operations in this paper. The scheme employs the LFM waveform as the fundamental radar waveform, while information symbols are embedded by DCSK modulation. Furthermore, the proposed DCSK-LFM scheme offers a controllable trade-off between the data rate and the maximum detection distance, adjustable through the pulse repetition period. The performance of the proposed DCSK-LFM scheme is carefully analyzed using the spectrum characteristic, bit error rate (BER), and ambiguity function. The effectiveness of the proposed DCSK-LFM scheme is validated by simulation results, demonstrating its notable proficiency in spectral characteristics, BER, and detection accuracy. Moreover, the proposed scheme exhibits a smaller leakage ratio compared to alternative approaches. These findings highlight that the proposed transmission scheme has significant potential for JRC systems.