Antenna Position Optimization in a MIMO Distributed Radar Network through Genetic Algorithms

Sidelobes are a major drawback in MIMO radars with widely distributed antennas, and signal bandwidth and antenna geometry have a deep impact on the shape of the detection ambiguity function. In this paper, moving from the main design requirements of a naval surveillance radar, a suitable antenna geometry is found. The effectiveness of a genetic algorithm applied to a MIMO scenario simulator for the computation of the fitness function is verified. By means of the proposed approach, a MIMO antenna geometry is identified that ensures excellent resolution capability and sidelobes suppression (>13 dB) with respect to a non-optimized geometry.