Date of Award

3-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Julie A. Jackson, PhD

Abstract

As a greater demand by the private sector for bandwidth drives spectrum allocations away from defense, new methods for coexistence in the spectrum are being explored. One of the prominent areas in defense for this coexistence is passive radar. This mode of radar system allows for data collection by referencing signals already established in the environment of interest. Some of the most prolific signals currently available are those used for mobile communication networks. In particular, Long- Term Evolution (LTE) is a common waveform that could be leveraged for discrete collection of image intelligence. Seeking to build a base of knowledge, simulations of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems are carried out using the LTE framework. Variations in waveform content, structure, and signal components are established and used to generate point-spread function (PSF) responses characterizing the image do- main impacts of given fluctuations. Overall, PSF responses for most variations are highly similar, incurring slight losses as pulses contain varied data types and slight gains when maximizing the amount of user data contained in pulses. Notable side- lobes in range profiles occur at predictable intervals and may be easily managed for adequately-sized scenes. Peak sidelobe ratio (PSLR) and integrated sidelobe ratio (ISLR) results show marginal improvement when pulses are varied over the aperture. Range and cross-range resolution, while remaining mostly unchanged throughout variations, are observed to be worse in simulation than is expected. The work presented here is meant to serve as a starting point of overall LTE characterization as a radar waveform and establish basic metrics of comparison for future efforts.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENG-MS-20-M-011

DTIC Accession Number

AD1103362

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