Frequency diversity in multistatic radars

This paper presents the model and analysis of a frequency-diverse radar system. Multistatic radar systems provide an inherent spatial diversity by processing signals from different platforms which view a potential target from different aspect angles. By using different frequencies at each platform, an additional diversity gain can be obtained on top of the advantages of spatial diversity. Here, since platforms are distributed spatially, true time delay is used at each platform to align the sample look point in time. The signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio and probability of detection are derived for the case for the frequency diverse and the non-frequency diverse cases. Comparing these two cases illustrates the significant benefits of frequency diversity. In addition, performances of optimum and suboptimum decentralized algorithms are compared.