Synchronization of Multistatic Radar Networks.
Modern warfare is increasingly relying on autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
As a result, enhancing Situational Awareness capabilities has become crucial for executing effective military operations. The MoMuRaN project aims to tackle this problem by studying and developing a Mobile Multistatic Radar Network for surveillance applications in urban environments to provide support to military operations. The key feature of this system is its adaptive nature, which is needed to deal with the highly dynamical battle scenarios.
The network, being mobile, will have its radar nodes installed on Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs). This mobility brings forth
significant challenges in terms of the system’s size and power requirements. The network’s mobile nature and the unique characteristics of operational environments also affect the quality of the wireless channel, hence appropriate modulation techniques must be adopted to address these challenges. Furthermore, as the system is multistatic, it requires stringent synchronization across the network to enable coherent processing and maintain a certain standard of performance.
Our laboratory’s research is focused on the task of synchronization, which in radar applications often imposes very precise timing. This is typically accomplished using optical fibres. However, for this particular and demanding application, only wireless synchronization protocols have been investigated. Initial simulations indicate that combining these protocols with highly stable oscillators could deliver the necessary performance. During this first year of the project, the research has been focused on a comparative analysis of the results achieved by using the proposed approach with different oscillator models.