System considerations for passive radar with GSM illuminators

The increasing number of communication transmitters makes passive radar an attractive and simple alternative to active radar systems. GSM base stations as illuminators for passive radar enjoy the advantage of digital waveform, frequency diversity and global availability. The problems with these transmitters are the low transmit power and the more or less directive transmit patterns. These limit the achievable range. This paper studies how a useful system can be designed by fusion of bistatic systems using multiple transmitters.