FDA-OFDM for integrated navigation, sensing, and communication systems

Integrated wireless communications, radar sensing, and smart navigation is becoming increasingly necessary owing to their similar finite radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic spectrum resource [1]. By integration of various disciplines, a multitude of new and more intelligent services, such as smart city and ambient assistant living, can become available. For instance, using a joint waveform for both radar and communication applications, the occupied spectrum would be used in a more efficiently way and both applications could be operated simultaneously. Such an integrated radar and communication systems has been reported in multiple papers [2]-[9]. An early example of integrated radar and communication system is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Shuttle Orbiter [10]. Another example is the intelligent transportation system [11], which allows the intelligent vehicles to autonomously sense the driving environment and cooperatively exchange the information data. Furthermore, the proposals for integrating cognitive radar and cognitive radio for efficient spectrum sharing are also suggested [12]. Many applications would possibly benefit from the availability of integrated navigation, sensing, and communications, which advantages can be summarized as follows [1]: (i) System cost is reduced and resource utilization is improved; (ii) The advantages of radar, such as high power and strong directivity, can be utilized to improve the communication quality and increase the effective sensing range; (iii) System automation level is enhanced.