An Information Theoretic Approach to Robust Constrained Code Design for MIMO Radars

The problem of transmit code design in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar systems is addressed in this paper. The problem is considered in both colocated and widely separated antenna radars in the presence of signal-dependent interference and target mobility. Due to complexity of exact expressions of the optimal detector in the MIMO radars, information theoretic criteria are employed as design metrics which results in a general form of nonconvex optimization problems. In order to tackle the problem, a novel technique based on the minorization-maximization algorithm is proposed and solutions are presented under practical constraints on the transmit code, namely energy constraint, peak-to-average-power ratio constraint, and similarity constraint. Furthermore, the devised method is extended to be robust against uncertainties of the clutter and interference statistics. Finally, numerical examples are used to show the performance of the proposed technique in different situations.