Energy Sharing and Performance Bounds in MIMO DFRC Systems: A Trade-Off Analysis

Abstract

It is a fundamental problem to analyze the performance bound of multiple-input multiple-output dual-functional radar-communication systems. To this end, we derive a performance bound on the communication function under a constraint on radar performance. To facilitate the analysis, in this paper, we consider a simplified situation where there is only one downlink user and one radar target. We analyze the properties of the performance bound and the corresponding waveform design strategy to achieve the bound. When the downlink user and the radar target meet certain conditions, we obtain analytical expressions for the bound and the corresponding waveform design strategy. The results reveal a tradeoff between communication and radar performance, which is essentially caused by the energy sharing and allocation between radar and communication functions of the system.