Performance analysis of joint parameter estimation for distributed radar networks under a general model

The joint target position and velocity estimation performance using an active or passive distributed radar is investigated under more general, and practically occurring, conditions than assumed in previous work. In particular, the presented results allow nonorthogonal signals, spatially dependent Gaussian reflection coefficients, and spatially dependent Gaussian clutter-plus-noise. Given these cases occur frequently in practice, these results are of considerable interest. The presented results do not make any assumptions about the approximate location of the target being known from previous target detection processing. The maximum likelihood estimate of the unknown position and velocity vector of a target is presented. In order to demonstrate the utility of the provided results to a topic of great current interest, the numerical results focus on a passive radar system using the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) cellar system to provide signals of opportunity that are assumed to be well estimated.