To cope with the increasingly complex electromagnetic environment, multistatic radar systems, especially the passive multistatic radar, are becoming a trend of future radar development due to their advantages in anti-electronic jam, anti-destruction properties, and no electromagnetic pollution. However, one problem with this multi-source network is that it brings a huge amount of information and leads to considerable computational load. Aiming at the problem, this paper introduces the idea of selecting external illuminators in the multistatic passive radar system. Its essence is to optimize the configuration of multistatic T/R pairs. Based on this, this paper respectively proposes two multi-source optimization algorithms from the perspective of resolution unit and resolution capability, the Covariance Matrix Fusion Method and Convex Hull Optimization Method, and then uses a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) as an external illuminator to verify the algorithms. The experimental results show that the two optimization methods significantly improve the accuracy of multistatic positioning, and obtain a more reasonable use of system resources. To evaluate the algorithm performance under large number of transmitting/receiving stations, further simulation was conducted, in which a combination of the two algorithms were applied and the combined algorithm has shown its effectiveness in minimize the computational load and retain the target localization precision at the same time.
Target localization in a multi-static passive radar system through convex optimization