LTE-R Based Passive Multistatic Radar for High-Speed Railway Network Surveillance

A passive multistatic radar system to perform perimeter surveillance of high-speed railway networks using the new Long-Term Evolution-Railway (LTE-R) illuminator of opportunity is presented. The ambiguity function of LTE-R signals is analyzed in terms of range and Doppler resolution and sidelobe level. The hardware architecture of the receivers is based on software defined radio (SDR) nodes and the signal processing and data fusion are based respectively on the delay-Doppler cross-correlation with the reconstructed reference signals and a two-stage tracking. Finally, the maximum detection range of the system is estimated, demonstrating its technical feasibility for the short-range detection of pedestrians, vehicles and small drones.