Towards a dual-function MIMO radar-communication system

Recently, dual-function radar-communication systems in which the radar platform and resources are used for communication signal embedding have emerged as means to alleviate spectrum congestion and ease competition over frequency bandwidth. In this paper, we introduce a new technique for information embedding specific to multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) radar. We exploit the fact that in a MIMO radar system, the receiver needs to know the association of the transmit waveforms to the transmit antennas. However, this association can change over different pulse repetition periods without impacting the radar functionality. We show that by shuffling the waveforms across the transmit antennas over constant pulse repetition periods, a data rate of megabits per second can be achieved for a moderate number of transmit antennas. The probability of error is analyzed and the bounds on the symbol error rate are derived. Simulation examples are provided for performance evaluation and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed information embedding technique.