Codesign of Beam Pattern and Sparse Frequency Waveforms for MIMO Radar

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar takes the advantages of high degrees of freedom for beam pattern design and waveform optimization, because each antenna in centralized MIMO radar system can transmit different signal waveforms. When continuous band is divided into several pieces, sparse frequency radar waveforms play an important role due to the special pattern of the sparse spectrum. In this paper, we start from the covariance matrix of the transmitted waveform and extend the concept of sparse frequency design to the study of MIMO radar beam pattern. With this idea in mind, we first solve the problem of semidefinite constraint by optimization tools and get the desired covariance matrix of the ideal beam pattern. Then, we use the acquired covariance matrix and generalize the objective function by adding the constraint of both constant modulus of the signals and corresponding spectrum. Finally, we solve the objective function by the cyclic algorithm and obtain the sparse frequency MIMO radar waveforms with desired beam pattern. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of this method.