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The authors deal with the robust design of multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) space–time transmit code (STTC) and space–time receive filter (STRF) for a point-like target embedded in signal-dependent interference. Specifically, they assume that the radar exploits knowledge provided by dynamic environmental database, to roughly predict the actual scattering scenario. Then, they devise an iterative method to optimise the (constrained) STTC and the (constrained) STRF which sequentially improves the worst-case (over interfering scatterers statistics) signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). Each iteration of the algorithm is handled via solving two (hidden) convex optimisation problems. The resulting computational complexity is linear with the number of iterations and polynomial with the sizes of the STTC and the STRF. At the analysis stage, they assess the performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of the achieved SINR. They show that properly exploiting the spatial degrees of freedom offered by the MIMO system, it is possible to obtain considerable SINR gains with respect to the conventional single-input–single-output system. Moreover, their results highlight the capability of the proposed method to robustify the performance of the designed system against possible knowledge inaccuracies.

This study deals with the problem of adaptive radar detection when a limited number of training data, due to environmental heterogeneity, is present. Suppose that some a priori spectral models for the interference in the cell under test and a lower bound on the power spectral density (PSD) of the white disturbance term are available. Hence, generalised likelihood ratio test-based detection algorithms have been devised. At the design stage, the basic idea is to model the actual interference inverse covariance as a combination of the available a priori models and to account for the available lower bound on the PSD. At the analysis stage, the capabilities of the new techniques have been shown to detect targets when few training data are available as well as their superiority with respect to conventional adaptive techniques based on the sample covariance matrix.

In this study, the authors consider the problem of cognitive transmit signal and receive filter design for a point-like target embedded in a high-reverberating environment. The authors focus on phase-only waveforms, sharing either a continuous or a finite alphabet phase, hence they devise constrained optimisation procedures that sequentially improve the Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR), accounting for a similarity constraint between the transmitted signal and a prescribed radar waveform. The computational complexity of the proposed algorithms is linear with the number of iterations and polynomial with the receive filter length. At the analysis stage, the performance of the techniques is assessed in the presence of a homogeneous clutter scenario.