A photonic-assisted joint radar and communication system based on LFM-DCSK waveform

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Microwave Engineering
• Secure Communications
• Radar Systems

Background:

• Microwave photonic technology offers broad bandwidth crucial for advanced radar and communication systems.
• Chaos-based secure communication leverages signal randomness for confidentiality.
• Integrating radar and communication functions (JRC) presents opportunities for enhanced spectral efficiency and resource sharing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and experimentally demonstrate a photonic-assisted microwave joint radar and communication (JRC) system.
• To utilize differential chaos shift keying (DCSK) for secure communication and radar enhancement.
• To evaluate the system's performance in terms of data rate, security, and radar detection capabilities.

Main Methods:

• Employing differential chaos shift keying (DCSK) to modulate a single-pulse linear frequency modulation (LFM) waveform.
• Leveraging microwave photonic technology for wide bandwidth signal generation and processing.
• Optimizing the spreading factor to balance communication security and radar performance.

Main Results:

• Experimental demonstration of a photonic-assisted microwave JRC system.
• Achieved a maximum communication data rate of 250 Mbit/s and a chaotic sequence rate of 1 Gchip/s.
• Obtained a peak sidelobe ratio (PSLR) of 24.25 dB and a range resolution of 7.3 cm.

Conclusions:

• The proposed photonic-assisted microwave JRC system effectively integrates secure communication and radar functionalities.
• The system demonstrates the potential of DCSK modulation in photonic systems for enhanced security and radar performance.
• This approach offers a promising solution for future integrated sensing and communication applications.