An MTI-Like Approach for Interference Mitigation in FMCW Radar Systems

Mutual interference between automotive frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar systems has been a concern over recent years. Several interference mitigation (IM) techniques have been proposed to mitigate this phenomenon, which is deemed to grow in severity as more systems are deployed on the road. In this article, an inexpensive technique, based on well-known moving target indicator (MTI) processing, is proposed to separate interference from target signals. It exploits the contrast after stretch processing between uncorrelated FMCW interference (sparse and chirp-like) and beat signals (stable sinusoids). The interference is therefore marked and subtracted. This eliminates interference at the cost of introducing a distortion dependent on the relative radial velocity of the targets. To validate the proposed approach, called MTI-IM, numerical simulations and experiments with commercial-grade radars have been performed, with comparisons between MTI-IM and other IM techniques. Results show good capabilities to fight the uncorrelated interference coming from more than one interfering radar. This is achieved at reduced computational cost, which is a key limiting factor in automotive systems.