Over-the-air deramping for multistatic perimeter surveillance

This paper explores the use of an over-the-air deramping (OTAD) system as a solution for perimeter surveillance. Over-the-air deramping is a technique for wirelessly synchronising distributed passive FMCW radar nodes to a dual-frequency master FMCW transmitter node. Such a system allows simultaneous monostatic and multistatic measurements for improved clutter resilience, and multiple looks at a target for reduced susceptibility to signal fading due to target scintillation. To prove the latter, a simultaneous monostatic and OTAD bistatic node were set up with a 5 m baseline and a walking person was measured. The results show that signal fading occurs in both the monostatic and the bistatic node, but rarely at the same time. Hence, combining the measurements from the two nodes gives a consistent response from the target. This demonstrates OTAD as a compelling system for a robust perimeter surveillance system.