Radar Systems

Open Ended Lab

Entitled as

“End to End basic Radar System Implementation over MATLAB-Simulink”

Submitted by:
Usama Abid 15-TE-83
Submitted to:
Engr. Dr. Rashid Saleem
Engr. Wafa Zahra

Dated:
04th July, 2019

Department of Telecommunication Engineering,

University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila
 1. Introduction

1.1. Objectives
• To simulate a basic radar system and its components over simulated environment.
• To analyze and study the different factors affecting a Radar System’s performance.

1.2. Research Scope:

Radar Systems have their practical implications in different industries, private and public sector,
Defense and Security organizations and their R&D departments. Due to enhance applications of Radars
and further improvements in its design and deployment, make it one of the hot topic of research and
further work.

1.3. Deliverables of the project

• Radar Systems basic Block Diagram Implementation
• Successful detection of echo at the receiving side, after facing environmental conditions.

2. What is a Radar?

A radar stands for Radio Detection and Ranging, and it’s obvious from its name that this communication
element helps in Radio Waves Detection and Tracking the target (of interest) for its range and distance.
It send and receive reflected back pulses from the target for completion of its operation.

2.1. Radar Parameters

There are different parameters associated with Radar, which heavily effect its performance and the
operations as defined above. Some of them are pulse repetition interval (PRI), time after which pulses
repeated, pulse repetition frequency (PRF) which defines the frequency of pulses generation, Pulse
power and Energy (Average and Peak Pulse Power), SNR etc.

2.3. Factors Affecting Radar’s Performance

Some of the factors affecting Radar’s Performance are:
 1. SNR: Higher be the SNR good be the detection of echo.

2. Pd: Higher be the detection probability, good be the detection of echo.

3. Peak Power: Higher be the Peak Power, good be the detection of echo.

4. Energy and Power: Higher be these factors, good be the detection of echo.

5. RCS: Higher be this factor, good be the detection of echo at receiver.

3. Block Diagram Implementation:

3.1. The Simulink Implementation:

Here, we have implemented the Radar basic block diagram implementation over MATLAB Simulink.
The flow diagram is shown below:

Pulse generation RF TransmitterTransmitting AntennatargetRF end of receiverReceiver

The block diagram is shown in the figure (a1).

Fig (a1). Radar Block Diagram

Pulse Generation Block: In this block, a basic rectangular waveform is generated with particular specs
viable for long target coverage. Furthermore, Pulse generator and normalizer blocks are used to finally
generate a output with rectangular waveform.

RF Transformer Block: In this block, Linear and Non-linear conditions are implemented with the help
of respective blocks. Such blocks are used for better realization of the real world environment.
The Doppler shift is also introduce to make the virtual environment be more realistic.

Antenna Block: Here, ideally the value of the antenna gain is settled down up to 20 dB units.

Target Block: This block involves information about the RCS, maximum distance (m), and carrier
frequency of the transmitted pulses.

Receiver Front-End Block: This block includes 3 different subsystems. The echo first entered into a
Linear and Non-linear condition based block along with a switch to check the phase error side by side.

Rx Block: This block contains multiple signal processing and match filtering blocks to make it possible
for a signal, to be utilized as a reading message over a console display.

3.2. The MATLAB Script file:

The MATLAB script file as mentioned below, involves a basic radar system implementation via
scripting “waveform”, “transmitting side”, “Antennas”, “Environmental condition”, and “Receiving
Antenna”.

The parameters frequency, SNR, RCS, Peak Power, Transmitting Power, Probability of Detection, Gain
etc. are the one which can be changed to enhance the radar’s performance.

MATLAB Code:

clc
clear all
hwav = phased.RectangularWaveform('PulseWidth',1e-6,...
'PRF',5e3,'OutputFormat','Pulses','NumPulses',1);
hant = phased.IsotropicAntennaElement('FrequencyRange',...
[1e9 10e9]);
htgt = phased.RadarTarget('Model','Nonfluctuating',...
'MeanRCS',0.5,'PropagationSpeed',physconst('LightSpeed'),...
'OperatingFrequency',4e9);
htxplat = phased.Platform('InitialPosition',[0;0;0],'Velocity',[0;0;0]);
htgtplat = phased.Platform('InitialPosition',[7000; 5000; 0],...
'Velocity',[-15;-10;0]);
[tgtrng,tgtang] = rangeangle(htgtplat.InitialPosition,...
htxplat.InitialPosition);
Pd = 0.9;
Pfa = 1e-6;
numpulses = 10;
SNR = albersheim(Pd,Pfa,10);
maxrange = 1.5e4;
lambda = physconst('LightSpeed')/4e9;
tau = hwav.PulseWidth;
Pt = radareqpow(lambda,maxrange,SNR,tau,'RCS',0.5,'Gain',20);
htx = phased.Transmitter('PeakPower',50e3,'Gain',20,...
'LossFactor',0,'InUseOutputPort',true,...
'CoherentOnTransmit',true);
hrad = phased.Radiator('Sensor',hant,...
'PropagationSpeed',physconst('LightSpeed'), 'OperatingFrequency',4e9);
hcol = phased.Collector('Sensor',hant,...
'PropagationSpeed',physconst('LightSpeed'),...
'Wavefront','Plane','OperatingFrequency',4e9);
hrec = phased.ReceiverPreamp('Gain',20,'NoiseFigure',2,...
'ReferenceTemperature',290,'SampleRate',1e6,...
'EnableInputPort',true,'SeedSource','Property','Seed',1e3);
hspace = phased.FreeSpace(...
'PropagationSpeed',physconst('LightSpeed'),...
'OperatingFrequency',4e9,'TwoWayPropagation',false,...
'SampleRate',1e6);
% Time step between pulses
T = 1/hwav.PRF;
% Get antenna position
txpos = htxplat.InitialPosition;
% Allocate array for received echoes
rxsig = zeros(hwav.SampleRate*T,numpulses);
for n = 1:numpulses
% Update the target position
[tgtpos,tgtvel] = step(htgtplat,T);
% Get the range and angle to the target
[tgtrng,tgtang] = rangeangle(tgtpos,txpos);
% Generate the pulse
sig = step(hwav);
% Transmit the pulse. Output transmitter status
[sig,txstatus] = step(htx,sig);
% Radiate the pulse toward the target
sig = step(hrad,sig,tgtang);
% Propagate the pulse to the target in free space
sig = step(hspace,sig,txpos,tgtpos,[0;0;0],tgtvel);
% Reflect the pulse off the target
sig = step(htgt,sig);
% Propagate the echo to the antenna in free space
sig = step(hspace,sig,tgtpos,txpos,tgtvel,[0;0;0]);
% Collect the echo from the incident angle at the antenna
sig = step(hcol,sig,tgtang);
% Receive the echo at the antenna when not transmitting
rxsig(:,n) = step(hrec,sig,~txstatus);
end
rxsig = pulsint(rxsig,'noncoherent');
t = unigrid(0,1/hrec.SampleRate,T,'[)');
rangegates = (physconst('LightSpeed')*t)/2;
plot(rangegates,rxsig); hold on;
xlabel('Meters'); ylabel('Power');
ylim = get(gca,'YLim');
plot([tgtrng,tgtrng],[0 ylim(2)],'r');

Elaboration to the Code:

MATLAB code/ script file is prepared with the use of basic built-in commands supported by MATLAB
15.0 toolbox and library. All the communication blocks, transmitter, receiver, and the relevant antenna
structures for the transmission and reception purpose, are created with the help of basic built in
commands, with radar parameters as an input.
The parameters are the only affective factor to enhance or degrade the echo reception at the receiver
side.

Waveform Generation: First of all, the radar transmission waveform is generated with the input
parameters width, pulse peak power and respective interval of repetition.

3.2. Results:

The detected results of the receiving side of Radar is showing a threshold point at 4x10-7dB with a
dashed line. The echo-pulse is detected only if the received pulses are above the threshold point as
mentioned above, in power.

Fig (a2). Echo detection at Receiver

Conclusion:

A Radar system is a complete set of different blocks performing different functions in order to
successfully complete the radar communication for the target detection. We have a lot of software tools
and supporting soft digital environment interfaces to realize the whole radar model or any other
communication model, same as it would work in real time realistic conditions. This can help a system
analyst and system designers to mould and modify the controllable parameters as per requirements.
From the learning point of view, the Simulink over MATLAB is utilized to make an in-depth analysis

and overview of the Radar Communication Blocks.