An Interference-Aware Radar Network Optimization Framework for AAM Surveillance

This paper describes a framework to optimize the topology of a ground-based radar network aimed at providing surveillance functionality into Advanced Air Mobility scenarios. The envisaged solution determines the arrangement (i.e., optimal location, azimuth and elevation angles) of the network's sensor that optimizes the coverage of a predefined surveillance volume while meeting minimum surveillance requirements in terms of Cramer-Rao bound and detection probability. With respect to previously developed solutions, the proposed strategy determines the locations of the radar sensors considering not only the terrain topology and the sensor characteristics but also the mutual radar interference arising when different radars field of regard overlap. Results of the optimization algorithm in identifying optimal locations for the sensors are assessed by checking the main performance parameters (i.e., network coverage, Cramer-Rao Bound and probability of detection) in the whole environment. The strategy is validated using two real world scenarios and demonstrates that the optimized radar network is able to fulfill the required surveillance performance, while minimizing the radar mutual interference.