Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar has been receiving increasing attention in recent years due to the dramatic advantages offered by MIMO systems in communications. The amount of energy reflected from a common radar target varies considerably with the observation angle, and these scintillations may cause signal fading which severely degrades the performance of conventional radars. MIMO radar with widely spaced antennas is able to view several aspects of a target simultaneously, which realizes a spatial diversity gain to overcome the target scintillation problem, leading to significantly enhanced system performance. Building on the initial studies presented in the literature, MIMO radar is investigated in detail in this thesis. First of all, a finite scatterers model is proposed, based on which the target detection performance of a MIMO radar system with arbitrary array-target configurations is evaluated and analyzed. A MIMO radar involving a realistic target is also set up, whose simulation results corroborate the conclusions drawn based on theoretical target models, validating in a practical setting the improvements in detection performance brought in by the MIMO radar configuration. Next, a hybrid bistatic radar is introduced, which combines the phased-array and MIMO radar configurations to take advantage of both coherent processing gain and spatial diversity gain simultaneously. The target detection performance is first assessed, followed by the evaluation of the direction finding performance, i.e., performance of estimating angle of arrival as well as angel of departure. The presented theoretical expressions can be used to select the best architecture for a radar system, particularly when the total number of antennas is fixed. Finally, a novel two phase radar scheme involving signal retransmission is studied. It is based on the time-reversal (TR) detection and is investigated to improve the detection performance of a wideband MIMO radar or sonar system. Three detectors demanding various amounts of a priori information are developed, whose performance is evaluated and compared. Three schemes are proposed to design the retransmitted waveform with constraints on the transmitted signal power, further enhancing the detection performance with respect to the TR approach.

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Radio frequency spectrum is a scarce natural resource that is utilized for many services including surveillance, navigation, communication, and broadcasting. Recent years have seen tremendous growth in use of spectrum especially by commercial cellular operators. As a result, cellular operators are experiencing a shortage of radio spectrum to meet bandwidth demands of users. Spectrum sharing is a promising approach to solve the problem of spectrum congestion as it allows cellular operators access to more spectrum in order to satisfy the ever growing bandwidth demands of commercial users. The US spectrum regulatory bodies are working on an initiative to share 150 MHz of spectrum, held by federal agencies, in the 3.5 GHz band with commercial wireless operators. This band is primarily used by radar systems that are critical to national defense. Field tests have shown that spectrum sharing between radars and communication systems require large separation distance in order to protect them from harmful interference. Thus, novel methods are required to ensure spectrum sharing between the two systems without the need of large protection distances. In order to efficiently share spectrum between radars and communication systems at the same time and in the same geographical area, a novel method is proposed that transforms radar signal in such a way that it does not interfere with communication systems. This is accomplished by projecting the radar signal onto null space of the wireless channel between radar and communication system. In order to understand the effects of the proposed sharing mechanism -- in urban, sub-urban, and littoral areas -- new channel models, specifically, two- and three-dimensional channel models are designed that capture azimuth and elevation angles of communication systems and helps in placing accurate nulls. In addition, interference coming from communication systems into radar receivers is analyzed and radar performance is accessed. Using this information, resource allocation schemes are designed for communication systems that take advantage of the carrier aggregation feature of the LTE-Advanced systems. This further helps in dynamic sharing of spectrum between radars and communication systems. The proposed signal projection approach not only meets radar objectives but also meets spectrum sharing objectives. However, there is a trade-off as signal projection results in some performance degradation for radars. Performance metrics such as probability of target detection, Cramer Rao bound and maximum likelihood estimate of target's angle of arrival, and beampattern of radar are studied for performance degradation. The results show minimal degradation in radar performance and reduction in exclusion zones, thus, showing the efficacy of the proposed approach. / Ph. D.

A 50 MHz Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar system, developed at the University of Saskatchewan to provide improved spatial and temporal resolution measurements of auroral E-region plasma processes, introduces ambiguous spectral information, due to spectral ghosting, for scattering events in which multiple radar echoes are detected. This thesis identifies two Linearly Frequency Modulated (LFM) radar waveforms used by the FMCW system as the source of the ghosting. An analysis procedure designed to counteract the spectral ghosting problem is developed but is not an ideal solution, and therefore replacement of the LFM waveforms is recommended.<p> A detailed investigation of alternative radar waveforms using the Ambiguity Function and Ambiguity Diagram techniques is performed. A frequency coded continuous wave radar waveform based on a composite Costas sequence is proposed as a successor to the LFM waveforms. The composite Costas radar waveform will conserve the spatial and temporal resolutions extended by the LFM waveforms and preclude any spectral ghosting. Implementing the proposed radar waveform and avoiding receiver saturation issues with the mono-static FMCW radar system in which both the transmitting and receiving antenna arrays are simultaneously and continuously active and geographically co-located is also discussed.<p> In addition to this, two 50 MHz backscatter events are presented in this thesis to demonstrate the effectiveness of the FMCW system, notwithstanding the spectral ghosting complication. The first event from November 21, 2009 is identified as a Type 1 instability and the second from September 13, 2009 is identified as a Type 2 instability which lasted for ~ 16 minutes. Linear plasma fluid theory is used to provide a brief interpretation of both scattering events.

A 50 MHz Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar system, developed at the University of Saskatchewan to provide improved spatial and temporal resolution measurements of auroral E-region plasma processes, introduces ambiguous spectral information, due to spectral ghosting, for scattering events in which multiple radar echoes are detected. This thesis identifies two Linearly Frequency Modulated (LFM) radar waveforms used by the FMCW system as the source of the ghosting. An analysis procedure designed to counteract the spectral ghosting problem is developed but is not an ideal solution, and therefore replacement of the LFM waveforms is recommended.<p> A detailed investigation of alternative radar waveforms using the Ambiguity Function and Ambiguity Diagram techniques is performed. A frequency coded continuous wave radar waveform based on a composite Costas sequence is proposed as a successor to the LFM waveforms. The composite Costas radar waveform will conserve the spatial and temporal resolutions extended by the LFM waveforms and preclude any spectral ghosting. Implementing the proposed radar waveform and avoiding receiver saturation issues with the mono-static FMCW radar system in which both the transmitting and receiving antenna arrays are simultaneously and continuously active and geographically co-located is also discussed.<p> In addition to this, two 50 MHz backscatter events are presented in this thesis to demonstrate the effectiveness of the FMCW system, notwithstanding the spectral ghosting complication. The first event from November 21, 2009 is identified as a Type 1 instability and the second from September 13, 2009 is identified as a Type 2 instability which lasted for ~ 16 minutes. Linear plasma fluid theory is used to provide a brief interpretation of both scattering events.

In this thesis study, an overview of MIMO radar is presented. The differences in radar cross section, channel and received signal models in different MIMO radar configurations are examined. The performance improvements that can be achieved by the use of waveform diversity in coherent MIMO radar and by the use of angular diversity in statistical MIMO radar are investigated. The optimal detector under Neyman-Pearson criterion for Coherent MIMO radar when the interfering signal is white Gaussian noise is developed. Detection performance of phased array radar, coherent MIMO radar and Statistical MIMO radar are compared through numerical simulations. A detector for MIMO radar that contains the space time codes explicitly is also examined.