Constrained radar waveform optimization for a cooperative radar-communication system

The coexistence of radar-sensing and communication systems research has received a surge of interest in recent times to tackle the issue of spectrum inadequacy. Designing an optimized radar waveform for a coexistence scenario has been a challenging task for accomplishing the convergence of radar-sensing and communication functionalities, without degrading the performance at either end. This paper proposes a novel global optimization-based Spatial Branch and Bound (SBnB) approach to optimize the phase coefficients of a Non-Linear Frequency Modulated (NLFM) waveform in a CRCS framework. In addition, the Modified-Power Ratio Constraint-Cramér–Rao Lower Bound (M-PRC-CRLB), a local optimization-based approach is proposed to optimize the phase coefficients of an NLFM waveform. The spectral energy distribution and auto-correlation characteristics of an NLFM waveform are comprehensively investigated for various values of polynomial order (N) and at different threshold Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR) values. To compare the proposed waveform design approaches (M-PRC-CRLB, SBnB) with the existing waveform design approaches namely, Minimum Estimation Error Variance (MEEV) and PRC- CRLB, a Peak-to-Side-Lobe-Ratio (PSLR), and Integrated-Side-Lobe-Ratio (ISLR) are evaluated at various polynomial orders and threshold SNR values. Furthermore, the performance of a CRCS is assessed using the radar estimation rate and communication data rate. The simulation results reveal that the proposed optimized radar waveform design approaches provide improved performance compared to the existing radar waveform design approaches in terms of radar estimation rate. Further, the proposed global optimization-based SBnB approach achieves a comparable performance of the communication data rate. In addition, the proposed approaches accomplish enhanced spectral utilization, controlled side-lobe energy levels, reduced range-domain ambiguities, and a higher information rate in a CRCS.