Power allocation for distributed passive radar systems with occasional node failure

In this paper, we address the optimal power allocation problem for a distributed passive radar system, where occasional node failures are taken into account. The goal of the network is to provide a reliable estimation from a target signal, by collecting and combining the individual observations from the network in a centralized node. In this regard, a minimum mean squared error (MMSE) problem is formulated for unbiased class of estimators, where a stochastical model regarding sensor failure is incorporated. As it is shown, the Karush Kuhn Tucker (KKT) conditions of optimality result in a solution algorithm with a water-filling (WF) structure, which provides an analytic optimal solution. In the end, numerical simulations illustrate the effect of the different network parameters on the resulting performance.