MIMO DFRC Signal Design in Signal-Dependent Clutter

This paper deals with the Dual-Function Radar and Communication (DFRC) signal design for a Multiple-Input–Multiple-Output (MIMO) system, considering the presence of signal-dependent clutter. A modulation methodology called Spectral Position Index and Amplitude (SPIA) modulation is proposed, which involves selecting passband and stopband positions and applying amplitude modulation. Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) is maximized to enhance radar detectability. Meanwhile, variable modulus and communication modulation constraints are enforced to ensure compatibility with the current hardware techniques and communication demand, respectively. In addition, the mainlobe width and sidelobe level constraints used to concentrate energy in a specific area of space are enforced. To tackle the resulting nonconvex and NP-hard optimization problem, an Iterative Block Enhancement (IBE) framework that alternately updates each signal in each emitting antenna is exploited to monotonically increase SINR. Each block involves the Dinkelbach’s Iterative Procedure (DIP), Sequential Convex Approximation (SCA) and Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) to obtain a single signal. The computational complexity and convergence of the algorithm are analyzed. Finally, the numerical results highlight the effectiveness of the proposed dual-function scheme in sidelobe signal-dependent clutter.