Signal reconstruction of DVB-T2 signals in passive radar

Passive radar systems utilise existing transmitter infrastructure to perform target detections. The matched filter is obtained by recording a line-of-sight copy of the transmitted waveform, in this case digital television. These signals are designed for communication and information broadcasting and therefore have a signal structure which is less optimal for radar signal processing. This paper provides a detailed overview of the Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial 2 (DVB-T2) signal structure. We compare this with the previous generation Digital Video Broadcast Terrestrial (DVB-T) and discuss its use in the passive radar context. In particular, we look at the ambiguity function and the various ambiguities in the range-Doppler map which are a result of various signal components such as pilot tones. We explore the feasibility of signal reconstruction in order to achieve a clean reference signal for use in the matched filter and to remove any ambiguities resulting from the signal structure. Target detection improvement stemming from this process is illustrated with an example using real recorded DVB-T2 radar data.