Multifunctionality In Radar: A Massive MIMO Radar Paradigm

Our research considers a radar which employs an aperture consisting of thousands of elements with multifunctional MIMO capabilities. The increased spatial degrees of freedom permits the radar to be multi-functional without significantly sacrificing desired beamwidth and angular resolution. In this paper, we consider a notional massive MIMO radar which performs multiple roles such as search, multi-target tracking, and full duplex communication to and from users of the channel and the radar, while simultaneously suppressing emissions where communications must be denied as well as sources of interference and jamming to the radar. Spatial processing algorithms are derived and we characterize the system performance using simulations in a u-v domain. Large aperture arrays have relatively smaller beamwidths which are not preferred for large volume surveillance. Therefore, we employ convex optimization algorithms to intentionally and selectively spoil certain transmit beams while leaving the rest unaltered while additionally suppressing emissions in other spatial sectors.