A software defined radar system for joint communication and sensing

In this paper, we consider the theory and implementation of a joint radar-communication system. A radar software library compatible with Texas Instruments (TI's) small form factor software defined radio (SDR) platform is developed which allows users to implement real-time adaptive radar algorithms in MATLAB without requiring detailed knowledge of the inner workings of the SDR. As an example design and demonstration of the capabilities of the radar-software library, a joint radar-communication system has been implemented. The system uses wideband digital communication signals to simultaneously interrogate a scene as a radar while communicating range-Doppler maps resulting from previous interrogations. This combined system eliminates the need for separate hardware for communicating recorded radar returns to a base station. We study digital communication waveforms under the performance criteria of a radar waveform.