Detection Power of a Distributed MIMO Radar System

Detection power is a significant performance indicator of a radar. The detection power of a traditional monostatic radar is a simple form described by the radar range equation and the exploited detector while for a distributed MIMO radar, the description of its detection power becomes very complicated due to the complex geometry and the large number of transmit–receive channels. This article systematically studies the detection power of a distributed MIMO radar system. First, we take advantage of a moment-matching approximation approach to deduce the basic equation for the detection power of a distributed MIMO radar system in the free space. On this basis, an exhaustive grid search (EGS) method and a fast boundary estimation (FBE) method are proposed to determine the detection power space (DPS) in the case that all transmit–receive beams focus on one point. The EGS method can obtain a more precise outline of the DPS but is time-consuming while the FBE method can reduce the computational complexity with an acceptable accuracy loss. Furthermore, to enhance the applicability of the DPS in radar design and resource scheduling, three DPS regularization schemes, i.e., the maximum inscribed sphere, the minimum circumscribed ellipsoid, and the maximum inscribed ellipsoid are developed based on the convex optimization theory. Spheres and ellipsoids are easy to describe and can capture the size, position, and even orientation of the DPS to a certain extent. Finally, simulations are conducted to validate the established theories and methods.