Ambiguity Function of the Transmit Beamspace-Based MIMO Radar

In this paper, we derive an ambiguity function (AF) for the transmit beamspace (TB)-based MIMO radar for the case of far-field targets and narrow-band waveforms. The effects of transmit coherent processing gain and waveform diversity are incorporated into the AF definition. To cover all the phase information conveyed by different factors, we introduce the equivalent transmit phase centers. The newly defined AF serves as a generalized AF form for which the phased-array (PA) and traditional MIMO radar AFs are important special cases. We establish relationships among the defined TB-based MIMO radar AF and the existing AF results, including the Woodward´s AF, the AFs defined for traditional colocated MIMO radar, and also the PA radar AF, respectively. Moreover, we compare the TB-based MIMO radar AF with the square-summation-form AF definition and identify two limiting cases to bound its “clear region” in Doppler-delay domain that is free of sidelobes. Corresponding bounds for these two cases are derived, and it is shown that the bound for the worst case is inversely proportional to the number of transmitted waveforms K, whereas the bound for the best case is independent of K. The actual “clear region” of the TB-based MIMO radar AF depends on the array configuration and is in between of the worst- and best-case bounds. We propose a new TB design strategy to reduce the levels of the AF sidelobes and show in simulations that proper design of the TB matrix leads to reduction of the relative sidelobe levels of the TB-based MIMO radar AF.