Joint radar-communications system implementation using software defined radios: Feasibility and results

Joint radar-communications systems attempt to address spectral congestion with cooperative spectrum sharing architectures. These architectures include co-existence, in which both systems agree to operate cooperatively, and co-design, in which both systems are designed together to achieve more efficient cooperation. We demonstrate the feasibility of a co-design architecture using a multiple-input, single-output (MISO) channel topology. This system architecture is implemented with a network of commercially available software defined radios (SDRs). The communications system uses a quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulation scheme. The radar system uses a standard linear frequency modulated (LFM) chirp. We demonstrate that a high-resolution radar return can be extracted from a simultaneous, multiple access reception using successive interference cancellation (SIC). Furthermore, we show that the high-resolution radar return can achieve similar estimation performance when compared to a radar only system.