Radar Precoder Design for Spectral Coexistence with Coordinated Multi-point (CoMP) System

Abstract: This paper details the design of precoders for a MIMO radar spectrally coexistent with a MIMO cellular network. We focus on a coordinated multi-point (CoMP) system where a cluster of base stations (BSs) coordinate their transmissions to the intended user. The radar operates in two modes, interference-mitigation mode when it avoids interference with the CoMP system and cooperation mode when it exchanges information with it. Using either the conventional Switched Null Space Projection (SNSP) or the newly proposed Switched Small Singular Value Space Projection (SSSVSP), the radar beam sweeps across the BS clusters focusing on the optimal ones, optimal in either nullity or difference between the precoded and original radar signal. Taking the channel estimation error into account, the design of precoder is pivoted on the minimal radar interference at the BS clusters during interference-mitigation mode and minimal bit-error-rate at the BSs during cooperation mode while interfering minimally with the radar target detection capability. Our investigation shows that loss in radar performance can be compensated using SSSVSP instead of SNSP to some extent but increasing the number of radar antenna elements goes a long way to serve the purpose. Simulations verify our theoretical predictions about the proposed SSSVSP.