CoopPCL - Cooperative Passive Coherent Location

Introduction
Objectives
Links and downloads

The aim of the project is to discuss and define a cooperative radar service that can be offered by a commercial operator as part of a public 5G mobile network. This includes a discussion in the circle of security authorities, politicians, the regulatory authority and network operators.

Introduction

Radar refers to methods and systems for detecting and locating objects by means of the processing of electromagnetic waves reflected by these objects. Active radars emit EM radiation themselves, some of them with high power. They generate unwanted EM smog during operation and can be detected and located.

So-called passive coherent location (PCL) radars do not emit EM radiation, but use the reflections of signals from radio or communication and mobile radio systems. Various advantages are discussed, such as: no localization possible, detection of difficult to detect objects and no problems with the approval and acceptance of such facilities.

The industry (3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP) and the international standardisation organisations (e. g. the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI) are currently driving forward the introduction of the 5th generation mobile phone network (5G) [1]. The potential of this technology also allows it to be used for a new global positioning system. The time horizon for implementation is 2020.

The TU Ilmenau, Prof. Reiner Thomä, suggested in [2] to integrate a radar service into a future 5G network. As with the well-known passive radar procedures, the existing communication traffic is used for radar illumination of the targets. The observers (sensors) are registered users of the same network. This enables a co-operation between the sensors and with the illuminators in the network and opens up a whole range of advantages described in [2]. This is referred to as cooperative passive coherent location (CPCL).

Objectives

5G will be characterised by features that will enable the new network to cope with the so-called vertical markets [4] and in particular mission-critical applications such as industrial, automotive and security (including military) applications[3]. These new features include low latency, direct device-to-device communication, software-radio-based scalability and the availability of real-time computing resources (Mobile Edge Cloud, MEC).

The advantages are, among other things, that the existing 5G frequencies from a few hundred MHz to (in future) in the millimetre wave range and the already existing infrastructure of the communication network can be used. This enables omnipresent radar coverage without additional investment in hardware and frequency allocation. The communication network enables the direct networking of the distributed sensors. Particularly of interest is the MEC, which with its computing and storage capacity is made available as a Fusion Centre. Adaptive antennas (massive MIMO) and the collision-free spatial-temporal access (multiple access, MAC) on different frequency diversity bands can also be used. Adaptive, demand-driven allocation of radio resource scheduling (radio resource scheduling), as is standard practice in mobile communications, can adjust the performance of the radar system to meet the specific requirements.

For civil applications, it is conceivable that a cooperative CPCL service for certain users may be offered by a public operator, such as Vodafone or Telekom, for a commercial service fee. This is just as conceivable for security-relevant and military tasks if LTE or 5G network technology is used for it. In this case, police or military would act as the operator or virtual operator of these networks, as described in [3]. The CPCL service would then be subject to the same security rules as communication in these networks.

[1] I. F. Akyildiz, S. Nie, S.-C. Lin, M. Chandrasekaran, "5G roadmap: 10 key enabling technologies," Elsevier, Computer Networks 106 (2016) 17-48.

[2] R. Thomä u.a., "Perspectives of Cooperative PCL (CPCL) in Next Generation Mobile Radio," Workshop "Present and Future Perspectives of Passive Radar", European Radar Conference 2017, 11th - 13th October 2017, Nuremberg.

[3] B. Farsund, A.-M. Hegland, F. Lillevold, "LTE for military communication - business models and vulnerabilities," The 19th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Communications Technology (ICACT2017) February 19 - 22, 2017, PyeongChang, Korea.

[4] 5G-Strategie für Deutschland - Eine Offensive für die Entwicklung Deutschlands zum Leitmarkt für 5G-Netze und -Anwendungen, BMVI 2017.

Technology 5G Verticals, Vehicle-to-X (V2X), Cooperative Driving, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), Joint Communication and Radar, Passive Coherent Location (PCL), Passive OFDM Radar, Distributed MIMO Radar Network, Radar Resource Management, High-Resolution Radar Parameter Estimation.

Market Mobile communications, mobile networks, data services, airspace surveillance, traffic control, naval traffic.

IP Prof. Reiner Thomä et. al.

Remarks none

Links and downloads

Wiki: Passive radar
Wiki: Passives Radar
Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz: Radaranlagen
Publication Thomä et.al.: Cooperative Passive Coherent Location: A Promising Service for Future Mobile Radio Networks
IEEE 2017 European Radar Conference (EuRAD)

At EuRAD 2017, a comprehensive workshop on the status of ongoing developments in the field of passive radar was conducted.

Technology	5G Verticals, Vehicle-to-X (V2X), Cooperative Driving, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), Joint Communication and Radar, Passive Coherent Location (PCL), Passive OFDM Radar, Distributed MIMO Radar Network, Radar Resource Management, High-Resolution Radar Parameter Estimation.
Market	Mobile communications, mobile networks, data services, airspace surveillance, traffic control, naval traffic.
IP	Prof. Reiner Thomä et. al.
Remarks	none