Reference Signal Reconstruction and Its Impact on Detection Performance of WiFi-based Passive Radar

Abstract

While Wireless Fidelity (WiFi)-based passive radar can achieve high detection resolution in both the range and Doppler domain, it is difficult to extract the reference signal because of the complexities of its signal format and application scenarios. In this study, we analyze a typical application of WiFi-based passive radar and discuss different methods for reference signal extraction. Based on the format and features of WiFi signals, we propose a method for reference signal reconstruction, and analyze the influence of the reconstructed reference signal’s performance on detection. The results show that higher reference SNRs generate lower decoding bit rate errors and better clutter suppression with the reconstructed reference signal. Moreover, we propose a method for removing irrelevant signals to avoid the impact on target detection of a non-direct path signal in the receiving signal. The experimental results validate the efficacy of the proposed signal processing method.