Radar Communication for Combating Mutual Interference of FMCW Radars

Abstract: Commercial automotive radars used today are based on frequency modulated continuous wave signals due to the simple and robust detection method and good accuracy. However, the increase in both the number of radars deployed per vehicle and the number of such vehicles leads to mutual interference among automotive radars, and cutting short future plans for autonomous driving and safety. We propose and analyze a radar communication (RadCom) approach to reduce or eliminate this mutual interference while simultaneously offering communication functionality. Our RadCom approach frequency division multiplexes radar and communication, where communication is built on a decentralized carrier sense multiple access protocol and is used to adjust the timing of radar transmissions. Our simulation results indicate that radar interference can be significantly reduced, at no cost in radar accuracy.