Wireless networked cognitive radar system: Overview and design guidelines

Cognitive radar is a concept proposed by Simon Haykin in 2006 as a new generation of radar system that imitates human cognitive features. Different from the adaptive signal processing at the receiver in adaptive radar, the cognitive radar realizes closed-loop adaptive policy adjustment of both transmitter and receiver in the continuous interaction with the environment. As a networked radar may significantly enhance the flexibility and robustness than its monostatic counterpart, the wireless networked cognitive radar (WNCR) attracts increasing research. This article firstly reviews the concept and development of cognitive radar, especially the related researches of networked cognitive radar. Then, the co-design of cognitive radar and communication is investigated. Although the communication quality between radar sensing nodes is the premise of detection, tracking, imaging and anti-jamming performance of the WNCR, the latest researches seldom consider the communication architecture design for WNCR. Therefore, this article mainly focuses on the proposal of WNCR concept based on the researches of cognitive radar and analyzes research challenges of WNCR system in practical application, and the corresponding guidelines are proposed to inspire future research.