An Experimental Evaluation of Robust Near-Field Radar Localization Using a Massive MIMO Testbed

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of robust radar sensing in the near-field of a distributed massive MIMO array using the OFDM waveform. We elaborate on some common sources of errors that may corrupt the radar data, and compare the non-coherent backprojection with the robust Capon beamformer under the influence of steering vector mismatch. We demonstrate with both simulated and experimental data that the robust Capon beamformer, with a suitable choice of parameters, provides significant gains in terms of dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio.