RadChat: Spectrum Sharing for Automotive Radar Interference Mitigation

TL;DR

RadChat is a distributed protocol designed to mitigate mutual interference among automotive FMCW radars and communication systems, significantly improving interference reduction in vehicular networks within 80 milliseconds.

Contribution

The paper introduces RadChat, a novel distributed networking protocol that effectively reduces mutual radar interference using radar communications in automotive settings.

Findings

RadChat reduces radar mutual interference in less than 80 ms.

Significant interference mitigation achieved in single-hop vehicular networks.

Analysis of interference occurrence probability and impact.

Abstract

In the automotive sector, both radars and wireless communication are susceptible to interference. However, combining the radar and communication systems, i.e., radio frequency (RF) communications and sensing convergence, has the potential to mitigate interference in both systems. This article analyses the mutual interference of spectrally coexistent frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar and communication systems in terms of occurrence probability and impact, and introduces RadChat, a distributed networking protocol for mitigation of interference among FMCW based automotive radars, including self-interference, using radar communications. The results show that RadChat can significantly reduce radar mutual interference in single-hop vehicular networks in less than 80 ms.