Efficient Frame Structure Design of PMCW Radar Based on Golay Sequence in 802.11ad Preamble

Phase-modulated continuous wave (PMCW) radar systems have been gaining attention as next-generation radar systems due to their advantages, such as availability of detecting high velocity targets, multiple-input multiple-output operation capability, and simplified transmitter architecture. Because autocorrelation property of phase modulation codes plays a crucial role in determining system performance of PMCW radar, proper signal design is essential. Golay complementary sequences are well-suited for PMCW radar systems because of their outstanding autocorrelation characteristics. These properties yield a sharp mainlobe and suppressed sidelobes in the range profile, which in turn enhance the accuracy of range estimation. To make more efficient use of these Golay sequences, we propose a signal processing method based on frequency-domain accumulation with Doppler shift compensation. In addition, we propose an efficient frame design method based on the frame structure used in the IEEE 802.11ad preamble. The combination of the proposed frame design and signal processing method enables significant improvements in Doppler robustness and time efficiency. Simulation results confirmed that the proposed frequency-domain accumulation with Doppler shift compensation method improves the peak power loss ratio (PPLR) by approximately 4 dB compared to the conventional accumulation method. In addition, the proposed frame design outperforms existing Golay-based designs, with improvements of up to 13 dB in PPLR, 19 dB in peak sidelobe level ratio, and 11 dB in integrated sidelobe level ratio. Moreover, it achieved superior performance when compared to widely used PRBS-based design, with enhancement of 0.68 dB in PSLR and 10.57 dB in ISLR.