Analysis of Random Pulse Repetition Interval Radar

Random pulse repetition interval (PRI) waveform arouses great interests in the field of modern radars due to its ability to alleviate range and Doppler ambiguities as well as enhance electronic counter-countermeasures (ECCM) capabilities. Theoretical results pertaining to the statistical characteristics of ambiguity function (AF) are derived in this work, indicating that the range and Doppler ambiguities can be effectively suppressed by increasing the number of pulses and the range of PRI jitters. This provides an important guidance in terms of waveform design. As is well known, the significantly lifted sidelobe pedestal induced by PRI randomization will degrade the performance of weak target detection. Proceeding from that, we propose to employ orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) to overcome this issue. Simulation results demonstrate that the OMP method can effectively lower the sidelobe pedestal of strong target and improve the performance of weak target estimation.