Good Code Sets from Complementary Pairs via Discrete Frequency Chips

Abstract: It is shown that replacing the sinusoidal chip in Golay complementary code pairs by special classes of waveforms that satisfy two conditions, symmetry/anti-symmetry and quazi-orthogonality in the convolution sense, renders the complementary codes immune to frequency selective fading and also allows for concatenating them in time using one frequency band/channel. This results in a zero-sidelobe region around the mainlobe and an adjacent region of small cross-correlation sidelobes. The symmetry/anti-symmetry property results in the zero-sidelobe region on either side of the mainlobe, while quasi-orthogonality of the two chips keeps the adjacent region of cross-correlations small. Such codes are constructed using discrete frequency-coding waveforms (DFCW) based on linear frequency modulation (LFM) and piecewise LFM (PLFM) waveforms as chips for the complementary code pair, as they satisfy both the symmetry/anti-symmetry and quasi-orthogonality conditions. It is also shown that changing the slopes/chirp rates of the DFCW waveforms (based on LFM and PLFM waveforms) used as chips with the same complementary code pair results in good code sets with a zero-sidelobe region. It is also shown that a second good code set with a zero-sidelobe region could be constructed from the mates of the complementary code pair, while using the same DFCW waveforms as their chips. The cross-correlation between the two sets is shown to contain a zero-sidelobe region and an adjacent region of small cross-correlation sidelobes. Thus, the two sets are quasi-orthogonal and could be combined to form a good code set with twice the number of codes without affecting their cross-correlation properties. Or a better good code set with the same number codes could be constructed by choosing the best candidates form the two sets. Such code sets find utility in multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) radar applications.