Alamouti coding scheme and virtual array concept for joint radar and communication systems

Abstract

This paper focuses on the integration of radar and communication (RadCom) systems on a common platform. We consider a scenario with multiple transmit and receive antennas, where the integration of the two functionalities is achieved through the use of Alamouti coding and OFDM waveform. It is shown that by using the Alamouti coding scheme, the spatial diversity order is improved as in legacy communication systems, which has a favorable impact on the bit error rate (BER). Furthermore, as the Alamouti code is an orthogonal code the radar’s angle resolution is improved through the use of the virtual array concept. The developed RadCom system presents good performance, low complexity and, therefore, is of interest for practical applications.