2016 URSI Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference

August 21-25, 2016 / Seoul, Korea

Measurement
and Analysis
of Weather
Phenomena
Multi-Band Multi-Mode
SDR
Radar Platform
for
withand
K-Band
Rain
Radar
Traffic
Security
Applications
Jun-Hyeong Park
Dept. of ElectricalYoung-Kil
EngineeringKwag

Ki-Bok Kong

Development team
School of KAIST
Electronics and Information EngineeringKukdong Telecom
DaeJeon, Republic
of Korea University
Nonsan, Republic of Korea
Korea Aerospace
bdsfh0820@kaist.ac.kr
Kbkong@kdtinc.co.kr
Goyang-City, Korea
ykwag@kau.ac.kr

AbstractTo overcome blind spots of an ordinary weather

radar
which scans
horizontally
a high
altitude, a weather
Abstract
This paper
presentsat the
new development
results
radar
operatesmulti-mode
vertically, sosoftware-defined
called an atmospheric
of
thewhich
multi-band,
radarprofiler,
(SDR)
is needed. The
In this
a K-band
for observing
rainfall
platform.
SDRpaper,
platform
consistsradar
of multi-band
RF modules
vertically
is introduced,
measurement
results
of rainfall
of
S, X, K-bands,
and and
a multi-mode
digital
modules
withare
a
shown andgenerator
discussed.for
ForCW,
better
performance
of the
atmospheric
waveform
Pulse,
FMCW, and
LFM
Chirp as
profiler,
the radar which
has highsoftware
resolution
even with
low
well
as reconfigurable
SDR-GUI
module
for user
transmitted
power
is designed.
thisvarious
radar, applications
a melting layer
is
interface.
This
platform
can be With
used for
such
detected
some results
that show characteristics
as
traffic and
monitoring
and surveillance,
and security. of the meting
layer are measured well.
KeywordsSoftware Defined Radar (SDR); radar system
KeywordsK-band;
FMCW;
rain radar; low transmitted
design;
multi-band; multi-mode
radar
power; high resolution; rainfall; melting layer

I. INTRODUCTION
I. INTRODUCTION
Software defined radar (SDR) has been drawing many
A weather
radar
usually measures
advantages
such as
a multipurpose
system, themeteorological
ability to reconditions
over a wide
a high altitude. Because
it
using
the ofhardware,
easeareaofat implementation
of signal
observes weather
phenomena
in the area, itand
is mainly
used for
processing
algorithms,
faster development
cost reduction.
weather
forecasting.
blind
spotstoexist
because an
A
SDR radar
system However,
is becoming
feasible
be implemented
ordinary
radar scans
horizontally,
whichtechnology.
results in
due
to theweather
recent matured
growth
of the core radar
difficulties
obtaining
on easier
rainfalltoat higher
and
This
makesin the
radar information
development
the users
lower
altitudes
than
the
specific
altitude.
Therefore,
a
weather
applications for multi-purpose, high performance, small size,
radarlow
that covers
the In
blind
spots
is required.
and
cost [1].
SDR
system,
most of the hardware
processing,
like
waveform
generation,
up and
A weather radar that scans vertically could
solvedown
the
conversion
of
IF
to
baseband,
and
radar
signal
processors
are
problem. This kind of weather radar, so called an atmospheric
performed
by software
based
The low-cost
profiler, points
towards the
sky programming.
and observes meteorological
Universal
Peripheral
(USRP)
one of the
conditions Software
accordingRadio
to the
height [1].
Also,isbecause
the
most
well-known
SDR
platforms,
however,
the
is
atmospheric profiler usually operates continuously atradar
a fixed
limited
to
narrow
bandwidth
and
the
digital
processor
is
low
position, it could catch the sudden change of weather in the
speed,
specific and
area.the USB interface between the host PC and
processor limit the system performance [2].
In this paper, K-band rain radar which has low transmitted
Thisand
paper
presents
a newofdevelopment
of the
power
high
resolutions
the range and
the multi-band,
velocity is
multi-mode
SDR
radar
platform.
Section
II
introduceswave
the
introduced. The frequency modulated continuous
design
specifications
of
SDR
radar
platform,
and
Section
III
(FMCW) technique is used to achieve high sensitivity and
presents
the
results
of
the
implemented
SDR
hardware
and
reduce the cost of the system. In addition, meteorological
software
withReflectivity,
the applications.
IV
results areplatform
discussed.
a fallFinally,
speed ofSection
raindrops
summarizes
the
conclusion.
and Doppler spectrum measured when it rained are described,
and characteristics of the melting layer are analyzed as well.
II. DESIGN OF SOFTWARE DEFINED RADAR
The
multi-mode
SDR
radar
platform
consists
EVELOPMENT
OF K-BAND
RAIN
RADAR
SYSTEM
II. Dmulti-band,
of replaceable antenna and RF modules at multi-band of S, X,
A. Antenna
and
K band, signal processor module with multi-mode
waveform
generation,
open
software
module
as
To suppress
side-lobeand
levels
andAPI
increase
an antenna
gain,
shown
in
Fig.
1.
offset dual reflector antennas are used [2]. Also, separation

1
1182

Seong-Ook Park
In-Sang
Woo
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
KAIST
Radar Research Institute
DaeJeon,
Republic of Korea
Korea Aerospace
University
soparky@kaist.ac.kr
Goyang-City,
Korea
iswoo@kau.ac.kr

wall exists between the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx)

antennas to improve isolation between them. With these
methods, leakage power between Tx and Rx could be reduced.
Fig. 1 shows manufactured antennas and the separation wall.
B. Design of Tranceiver
Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of the K-band rain radar.
Reference signals for all PLLs in the system and clock signals
for every digital chip in baseband are generated by four
frequency synthesizers. In the Tx baseband module, a field
Fig. 1. Block diagram of multi-band and multi-mode SDR radar
programmable
gate array (FPGA) controls a direct digital
synthesizer
(DDS)
to generate
an for
FMCW
signal which
This SDR radar can
be operated
a mono-static
or bidecreases
with
time
(down-chirp)
and
has
a
center
static radar application. The key specification of frequency
the SDR
of 670system
MHz. is
The
sweep bandwidth
radar
presented
in Table 1.is 50 MHz which gives the
high range resolution of 3 m. Considering the cost, 2.4 GHz
signal used as a reference clock input of the DDS is split and
SDR S(LO).
YSTEM SPECIFICATION
used for a TABLE
local I.oscillator
the FMCW signal is
transmitted toward raindrops with
the
power
of only 100 mW.
Specification
Parameter
Beat
frequency which has data of the range and the radial
S-band
X-band
K-band
velocity of raindrops is carried by 60 MHz and applied to the
Frequency
2.4 GHz
10.5 GHZ
24.05 GHz
input
of the Rx baseband
module. 25
InmW
the Rx baseband
module,
E.I.R.P
10 mW
100 mW
quadrature
is performed
Bandwidth demodulation
25 MHz
50 MHz by a digital
150 MHzdown
converter
can be doubled
than
Resolution(DDC). Thus,
6 m detectable 3range
m
1m
Range
30 m
40 mTransform (2D-FFT)
100 m
usual.
Two Dimensional-Fast
Fourier
is
Waveform by two FPGAs.
CW/FMCW/Pulse/LFM
Pulse is performed
performed
Because the 2D FFT
Interface
Wi-Fi
with
1024 beat signals, theGigabit
radar Ethernet,
can have
high resolution of
the radial velocity. Finally, data of raindrops are transferred to
a PC with local LAN via the an UDP protocol. TABLE I.
showsIII.
main
specification of OF
theSDR
system.
RADAR PLATFORM
IMPLEMENTATION
A. SDR Radar Hardware Platform
The antenna is implemented for multi-band using a microstrip and/or a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW). The RF
transmitter modules modulate radar waveform signal and
radiate the RF power through the antenna. The echoes are
received to a signal processor module through an RF receiver
module. The radar waveform is implemented by the DDSbased waveform generator such as CW, FMCW, Pulse, and
LFM. The host PC with the API software controls the SDR
platform for multi-band and multi-mode operation by
changing the waveforms and/or parameters of the SDR radar
platform. The block diagram of the RF transceiver and signal
processor modules are shown in Fig. 2, and the implemented
Fig. 1. Manufactured antenna and separation wall.
SDR radar hardware platform is shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 2. RF transceiver of the SDR radar platform

Fig. 4. SDR-GUI Software Platform

IV. CONCLUSION
This paper presents the development results of the
software defined radar platform. The key features of the
implemented SDR platform are the multi-band and multimode system, replaceable RF hardware, a common digital
processor, radar processing algorithm library and open API
software platform. This multiband and multimode SDR radar
platform has been tested and can be applicable to various
applications such as radar training education, traffic
monitoring, security, and surveillance for civil as well as
military users.

Fig. 3. Implemented SDR radar hardware platform

B. SDR Radar SW Platform

The software module is implemented based on the open
architecture application programming interface (API) with
GUI (Graphic User Interface). Fig. 4 shows the implemented
SDR-GUI Software Platform. The open software module
consists of a hardware interface, service interface, internal
middle ware, and library connection daemon. The HW
interface is used for data acquisition and processing of the
control signal of the SDR hardware platform. The service
interface provides information of application software and
HW interface, control, and displays API function. Library
server connects commercial tool like as MATLAB with
processor module. The radar signal processing algorithms are
evaluated and operated depending on the applications. The key
algorithm libraries include the pulse compression, clutter
filtering, Doppler processing, CFAR (Constant False Alarm
Rate) detection, and range/Doppler processing. The four major
application software modules include education, traffic,
security, and surveillance monitoring modules.

1183

Acknowledgment
This work was partly supported by the ICT R&D program
of MSIP/IITP. [14911-01004, SDR Radar Sensor Platform
Development]

References
[1]

[2]
[3]

Y. Kwag, and I. Woo et al., Multi-band multi-mode SDR radar

platform, Proceeding of the Asia-Pacific International Synthetic
Aperture Radar (APSAR-2015) Conference, pp. 46-49, Singapore, Sept.
1-4, 2015.
V. Fernandes, Implementation of a radar system using MATLAB and
the USRP, CSUN Scholar Works, 2012 .
J. Park, J. T. Johnson, and N. Majurec et al., "Software defined radar
studies of human motion signatures," IEEE Radar Conference 2012, pp.
596-601, 2012.