An Implementation of Real-Time Phased Array Radar Fundamental Functions on DSP-Focused, High-Performance Embedded Computing Platform

Abstract

This paper investigates the feasibility of a backend design for real-time, multiple-channel processing digital phased array system, particularly for high-performance embedded computing platforms constructed of using general purpose digital signal processors. Frist, we obtained the labscale backend performance benchmark from simulating beamforming, pulse compression, and Doppler filtering based on MicroTCA chassis using Serial RapidIO protocol in backplane communication. Next, a field-scale demonstrator of a multifunctional phased array radar is emulated by using the similar configuration. Interestingly, the performance of a barebone design is compared to that of emerging tools that systematically take advantage of parallelism and multicore capabilities, including Open Computing Language.

General purpose graphic processing unit implementation of adaptive pulse compression algorithms

“…Compared with the TITAN Xp we used in our experiment, which comes with 12150 GFLOPS, X2 provides 1/8 of the computation power of its desktop counterpart. While comparing with another popular approach for pulse compression which is a DSP-focused, high-performance, embedded computing platform, 20 the potential computation ability of the GPGPU approach [1500 GFLOPS-Tegra X2 (Parker)] is significantly higher than it of the DSP approach (160 GFLOPS-TI C6678). However, with fewer overheads, the DSP-based approach could be more efficiently used than the GPGPU counterpart, which might mitigate the performance gap between GPGPU and DSP (1500 GFLOPS versus 160 GFLOPS).…”

An Implementation of Real-Time Phased Array Radar Fundamental Functions on a DSP-Focused, High-Performance, Embedded Computing Platform

“…In [1], we had introduced the real-time phased array radar (PAR) processing based on the Micro Telecom Computing Architecture (MTCA) chassis. PAR, especially digital PAR, ranks among the most important sensors for aerospace surveillance [2].…”