Field Trial of a Coherent, Widely Distributed, Dual-Band Photonics-Based MIMO Radar with ISAR Imaging Capabilities

Soon after its introduction in the communications domain, the novel concept of multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) has been making its way also into the radar world. A new generation of multistatic netted systems with unprecedented capabilities has been fully theorised, unveiling its potential advantages over its classical stand-alone, monostatic counterparts. However, MIMO radars mainly remained the object of abstract modeling, since electronic technology could hardly support the practical implementation of this new class of systems. With the development of microwave photonics, the realization of MIMO radar networks at the best of their capabilities has become a reality, thanks to the inherent coherence of photonics systems, and to the broad-band, low-distortion, and interference-immune optical signal distribution. This paper presents the results of a microwave photonics widely-distributed, dual-band MIMO radar network, deployed in a real freight port for maritime traffic monitoring, with inverse synthetic aperture radar imaging capabilities. It employs a central unit connected to multiple widely distributed remote radar peripherals thanks to optical fiber. The possibility to operate in dual-band mode, and the coherent management of the transmitted and received signals are demonstrated, exploiting geometric and frequency diversity in target detection. The system exhibits a spurious-free dynamic range of ~82 dB · Hz2/3 and a sensitivity of-110dBm.Under these premises, a small boat of~1m2 radar cross section has been detected at more than 800m, achieving a probability of detection of about 0.85, for a false alarm rate of 7.7 × 10-4.