Detection-Localization Tradeoff in MIMO Radars

Abstract

Two gains play key roles in recently developed‎ MIMO ‎wireless communication systems‎: ‎"spatial diversity‎" ‎gain and "spatial multiplexing‎" ‎gain‎. ‎The diversity gain refers to the capability to decrease the error rate of the MIMO channel‎, ‎while the multiplexing gain implicitly refers to the amount of increase in the capacity of the MIMO channel‎. ‎It has been shown that there is a fundamental tradeoff between these two types of gains‎, ‎meaning interplay between increasing reliability (via an increase in the diversity gain) and increasing data rate (via an increase in the multiplexing gain)‎. ‎On the other hand‎, ‎recently‎, ‎MIMO radars have attracted much attention for their superior ability to enhance the system's performance‎. ‎As a MIMO system‎, ‎it is expected that the mentioned diversity-multiplexing tradeoff exists in a MIMO radar‎, ‎too‎. ‎In this paper‎, ‎this tradeoff is studied and verified in MIMO radars with widely separated antennas‎. ‎In more details‎, ‎it will be shown that increasing dependency between transmit-receive links results in higher diversity gain and lower multiplexing gain‎, ‎and vice versa‎. ‎Then‎, ‎the optimal tradeoff is introduced‎, ‎i.e.‎, ‎the conditions that the MIMO radar system should have‎, ‎so that the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff is at its optimum point‎, ‎are driven‎.