Multistatic Radar Performance in the Presence of Distributed Wireless Synchronization

This paper proposes a multistatic radar (MSR) system utilizing a distributed wireless synchronization protocol. The wireless synchronization protocol uses a two-tone waveform exchange for frequency synchronization and a bi-directional waveform exchange for time synchronization, independent of GPS. A Bayesian Cramer-Rao lower bound (BCRLB) framework is developed to quantify the impact of synchronization offsets on joint delay and Doppler estimation, and consequently, on target localization and velocity estimation accuracy. Simulation results derived from the analytical expressions establish the extent to which the residual synchronization offsets degrade the MSR's performance. The performance of the synchronization links primarily depends on the synchronization-link channel and transmit parameters; optimizing these parameters enables the MSR configuration to surpass the monostatic performance and approach the ideal case. Furthermore, the simulated synchronization-link parameters suggest that practical implementation is feasible.