12.

Waveforms, Design and Diversity

Waveforms, Design and Diversity

Barker codes!
Polyphase codes!
Nonlinear FM!
Linear period modulation!
Step-CW and step-chirp!

Phase Coded Pulse Compression

In contrast to analogue linear-FM pulse compression, it is equally
possible to generate almost any waveform by digital means, and to
perform the pulse compression processing digitally, with all of the
advantages (high performance, reproduceability, flexibility, ) of
digital processing.!
Many types of waveform, and especially phase coded waveforms
have been studied and used. Phase coded waveforms can be
biphase (simplest) or polyphase.!
One of the simplest types are the Barker codes.!

Barker Codes

Barker codes are a set of binary (biphase) codes with perfect autocorrelation
properties (in the sense that the sidelobes are either zero or + 1.!
The codes are as follows :!

Code length
2
3
4
5
7
11
13

Code elements
+,++
++
+ + +, + + +
++++
++++
+++++
+++++++++

Sidelobe level, dB
6.0
9.5
12.0
14.0
16.9
20.8
22.3

Barker Codes

+ + + +
+ + + +

We can evaluate the autocorrelation function of any of these codes (for

example, of length 5) by considering the output from a tapped delay-line
matched filter :!

Barker Codes

+ + + +
+ + + +

Barker Codes

+ + + +
+ + + +

Barker Codes

+ + + +
+ + + +

Barker Codes

+ + + +
+ + + +

Barker Codes

+ + + +
+ + + +

Barker Codes

+ + + +
+ + + +

Barker Codes

+ + + +
+ + + +

Barker codes

+ + + +
+ + + +

Barker Codes

+ + + +
+ + + +

Barker Codes

+ + + +
+ + + +

Barker Codes

Peak side-lobe level = 20 log10 n!

!
Processing gain = 10 log10 n!
!
where n is the code length.!
!
!
!
The side-lobe performance degrades quite badly away from zero Doppler.!
!
No Barker codes of length greater than 13 have ever been discovered. But it
is possible to build concatenated codes which have greater length.!

Barker Codes

Digital Pulse Compression

Time Domain vs Frequency Domain Processing

input

time domain!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
frequency domain!

W1

W3

WNf

. . . . .

compressed
waveform

input

g ( t ) h ( t ) = F - 1 F ( g ( t ) ) F ( h ( t ) )

inverse
FT

forward
FT

replica
spectrum

F ( g ( t ) h ( t ) ) = F ( g (t ) ) F ( h (t ) )

W2

compressed
signal

Concatenated Barker Codes

For example take a 5-bit Barker code and a 4-bit Barker code :!
!
!
+ ! #"
+ ! #"
+ ! #"
! #"
+!
#
"
!
+++ +++ +++ +++ +++
!
!
The matched filter is built up by cascading the matched filters for the
individual codes :!

+ - + +


+ 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 + 0 0 0 + 0 0 0 +

Polyphase Codes

Greater flexibility over biphase codes is provided by polyphase

codes, though the processing involved in generation and
compression is more complicated than for biphase codes. Several
of these have been proposed and studied; most are based on
approximations to linear FM.!
!
Examples are Frank codes, Huffman codes, and the P-codes
developed by Kretschmer and Lewis. !

Frank Codes
Greater flexibility over biphase codes is provided by polyphase codes, though the
processing involved in generation and compression is more complicated than for
biphase codes. Several of these have been proposed and studied; most are
based on approximations to linear FM.!
!
Examples considered here are Frank codes, Huffman codes, and the P-codes
developed by Kretschmer and Lewis. !

Kretschmer & Lewis P-Codes

Costas Codes

N
M(N)
M(N)|N!

3
4
0.67

4
12
0.5

NUMBER AND DENSITY OF COSTAS ARRAYS

5
6
7
8
9
10
11
40
116
200
444
760
2,160
4,368
-3
-4
0.33
0.16
0.04
0.011
210
610
110-4

fc+f6

fc+f5
fc+f4
fc+f3
fc+f2
fc+f1
fc
f/t

12
7,852
1.610-5

*
*
*
*
*
t0

t1

*
t2

t3

t4

t5

t6

The permutation matrix shown is one of 200 possible Costas arrays for N = 7.

Costas codes

Ambiguity diagrams

Barker

Costas

Pseudo Random Binary

Code!

Code!

Code!

Ultra low side-lobe waveform

We had a requirement for a waveform with very low range sidelobes
(better than -60 dB) for a satellite-borne rain radar.!
v
d

h
r

Ultra low side-lobe waveform

Ultra low side-lobe waveform

Ultra low side-lobe waveform

Welti Codes

Ultra low side-lobe waveform

frequency

time

The waveform can be written as!

!
~
!
s1 (t ) + ~
s2 (t )
!
where ~s1 (t ) is the central linear FM component and ~s2 (t ) corresponds to the additional
higher FM rate portions!
!
The higher FM rate can be thought of as a way of reducing the energy per unit
bandwidth (i.e. amplitude taper) whilst keeping the amplitude constant.!
Griffiths, H.D. and Vinagre, L., Design of low-sidelobe pulse compression waveforms, Electronics Letters, Vol.30,
pp1004-1005, 1994.

Ultra low side-lobe waveform

The point target response is the sum of the different crosscorrelation
terms :!

s0 ( ) =

*
~
~
{
}
s
(
t
)
s
(
t

)
g
(
t

)
dt
1 1

*
~
~
{
}
s
(
t
)
s
(
t

)
g
(
t

)
dt
2 1

*
~
~
{
}
s
(
t
)
s
(
t

)
g
(
t

)
dt
1
2

*
~
~
{
}
s
(
t
)
s
(
t

)
g
(
t

)
dt
2 2

= R1( ) + R2 ( ) + R3 ( ) + R4 ( )
R3(t) and R4(t) are negligible.
(i) R1(t) ; (ii) R2(t) ; (iii) s0(t) for optimised
waveform

Ultra low side-lobe waveform

Improved DDFC waveform

M .t

f i, pos = M .t +
T

fi =

f i , pos

f
i , pos

0 t t1

2t

t1 < t t2
t2 < t T 2

T 2 t < 0
0t T 2

t1 = T 2
t2 = T 2 ( + B 2 )

Pulse Coding - IRF with DDFC waveform

dB

Red curve shows IRF

from DDFC waveform!
Sidelobe envelope now
below
-71dB!
First few inner sidelobes
still above -65dB. For
ground return these
extend to 1.5km above
ground.

Pulse Coding - reduced near side-lobes

dB

Inner sidelobes controlled by

window weighting rather than
waveform extension.
Window weighting changed
from three to four-term
Blackman-Harris
First sidelobes now below
-70 dB
Main lobe width at -70 dB is
450 m
Sidelobe envelope unaffected,
still below
-71 dB
Implementation loss due to
wide bandwidth and severe
window weighting is 6 dB

Further reading
Cook, C.E. and Bernfeld, M., Radar Signals, Academic Press, New York, 1967.!
!
Rihaczek, A.W., Principles of High Resolution Radar, McGraw-Hill, New York,
1969.!
!
Cohen, M., Radar waveforms and applications, Chapter 15 in Principles of
Modern Radar (Eaves, J.L. and Reedy, E.K. eds), Chapman & Hall, 1987.!
!
Levanon, N. and Mozeson, E., Radar Signals, Wiley, 2004!
!
Pace, P.E., Detecting and Classifying Low Probability of Intercept Radar, Artech
House, 2004.!