Target scene reconstruction in indoor environment with cognitive OFDM radar

In this paper we discuss the design and experimental results associated with the software-defined ultra-wideband (UWB) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system, which we aim to configure as a cognitive radar. Frequency-domain likelihood ratios (LR) are obtained via response distribution modeling and statistical parameter estimation on a per-sub-carrier basis. Then the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) is performed on a composite LR. We propose to enhance this approach via adaptive selection of OFDM signal's sub-carriers to improve the detection performance; exploiting frequency diversity of the target scene by complementing the GLRT-based detection with frequency profile matching. This approach, when applied to a software-defined system, will provide for cognitive radar functionality.