Cost-Efficiency Analysis of Distributed Radar Coverage

Research in distributed radar systems has gained a lot of traction over the last two decades. There are many benefits using distributed radar systems, like the increase in detection coverage or filling gaps in a surveillance area. However, no research paper has explicitly analyzed the scalability of distributed radar coverage and its direct impact on radar system design. First, the paper derives analytical bounds on how the gain in distributed radar coverage scales in terms of range, area, and volume compared to a single radar case. Then, a numerical calculation example is used to analyze the cost-efficiency of various distributed radar configurations. The cost-efficiency analysis compares different prices of power amplifiers as the primary driver for unit cost. The analysis compares system cost and gain in coverage for the different distributed radar configurations. In the numerical calculation example, it is demonstrated that a distributed radar system with 15 W output power has the potential to increase the coverage by 3.8 times in range, 2.3 times in area and 1.5 times in volume compared to the 100 W single case radar of similar cost.