Time Domain IRCI-Free Pulse Compression for OQAM-OFDM Radar System

In this article, a novel majorization-minimization (MM)-based time domain pulse compression method (MM-based TDPCM) is proposed for offset quadrature amplitude modulation-based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OQAM-OFDM) radar system. We first propose a TDPCM by constructing a general linear model from the time domain with the estimated weights of the OQAM-OFDM signal and solving the model with a whitening operation to complete the pulse compression. The proposed TDPCM greatly reduces the required number of subcarriers for the given range cells and achieves inter range cell interference (IRCI)-free pulse compression. Furthermore, the MM-based TDPCM is proposed to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the TDPCM. By theoretically analyzing the SNR performance of the TDPCM, we develop an optimization model to design the transmitted weights of the OQAM-OFDM signal. Then, the MM algorithm is proposed to solve the optimization model, realizing the maximum SNR output. Finally, numerical simulation results verify the superior performance of the proposed MM-based TDPCM.