Near-Field Coherent Radar Sensing Using a Massive MIMO Communication Testbed

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of radar sensing by using a large number of antennas. We use the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform, and show that the large arrays used in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications enable accurate localization in the array near-field, even at the narrow bandwidths typically encountered at low carrier frequencies. We validate our findings experimentally with a massive MIMO testbed operating at 3.5 GHz carrier frequency and 18 MHz OFDM bandwidth in an indoor environment. We consider a single moving cylinder, and demonstrate a median accuracy of (3.4, 5.6) cm in (x, y) in the near-field. We show that the accuracy is maintained with only a single subcarrier, and that the resolution increases with an order of magnitude when combining all antennas, effectively surpassing the 16.67 m histatic range resolution set by the OFDM waveform. We use a radar symbol duration of 71.88 mu s at an effective transmission period of 2.5 ms, which indicates that the radar and communication systems can be implemented in time-division with a capacity loss of only 2.9%. Our results suggest that near-field radar sensing can be integrated into future massive MIMO systems operating at low carrier frequencies and narrow bandwidths.