Coordinated radar resource management for networked phased array radars

A phased array radar has the ability to rapidly and adaptively position beams and adjust dwell times, thus enabling a single radar to perform multiple functions, such as surveillance, tracking and fire control. A radar resource manager prioritises and schedules tasks from the various functions to best use available resources. Networked phased array radars that are connected by a communication channel are studied. This study considers whether coordinated radar resource management (RRM), which exploits the sharing of tracking and detection data between radars, enhances performance compared with independent RRM. Two types of distributed management techniques for coordinated RRM are proposed, with each type characterised by varying amounts of coordination between the radars. A two-radar network and 30-target scenario are modelled in the simulation tool Adapt_MFR, to analyse the performance of the two coordinated RRM techniques against the baseline case of independent RRM. Results indicate that the coordinated RRM techniques achieve the same track completeness as independent RRM, while decreasing track occupancy and frame time. Therefore, coordinated RRM can improve reaction time against threats, at the expense of sending data across a communication channel. The performance of coordinated RRM for a communication channel with errors is also modelled and analysed.