Electromagnetic Modeling of Extended Targets in a Distributed Antenna System

Traditional radar and integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems often approximate targets as point sources, a simplification that fails to capture the essential scattering characteristics for many applications. This article presents a novel electromagnetic (EM)-based framework to accurately model the near-field (NF) scattering response of extended targets, which is then applied to three canonical shapes: a flat rectangular plate, a sphere, and a cylinder. Mathematical expressions for the received signal are provided in each case. Based on this model, the influence of bandwidth, carrier frequency, and target distance on localization accuracy is analyzed, showing how higher bandwidths and carrier frequencies improve resolution. Additionally, the impact of target curvature on localization performance is studied. Results indicate that detection performance is slightly enhanced when considering curved objects. A comparative analysis between the extended and point-target models shows significant similarities when targets are small and curved. However, as the target size increases or becomes flatter, the point-target model introduces estimation errors owing to model mismatch. The impact of this model mismatch as a function of system parameters is analyzed, and the operational zones where the point abstraction remains valid and where it breaks down are identified. These findings provide theoretical support for experimental results based on point-target models in previous studies.