Design And Implementation Of Radar Signal Simulation Software Based On Virtual Instrument

With the continuous improvement of radar technology, the test of radar’s performance index is getting more and more complex. Therefore, radar signal simulator is widely used in modern radar development process. General radar signal simulator, which takes full advantage of the powerful virtual instrument technology, is composed of a radar signal simulation software and some instruments. So it has many advantages. For example, it is economical and practical, and it can simulate a variety of signal patterns with the waveform parameters which can be set by different users, etc. Since all of the instruments used in general radar signal simulator are available, it is of great practical significance to develop a radar signal simulation software with good universality, high integration and strong scalability.This paper firstly discusses the requirement analysis of radar signal simulation software, and presents a design of radar signal simulation software based on virtual instruments, which can simulate radar transmitting signals and echo signals. Top-down module division of the radar signal simulation software is done in a structured way, and the interrelationship of various modules is discussed. Secondly, the function of each module consisting of the radar signal simulation software has a special description, where the display module is used for human-computer interaction and the control of other modules, and signal simulation module is used for simulating the required radar signal, and interface modules is used for external communication. Thirdly, various models of radar signals are described detailedly, including radar transmitting signal model, antenna model, target model, clutter model, jamming model, noise model and so on. Then the software design based on Lab Windows/CVI is brought forward in detail, such as signal simulation module, interface module and display module. Signal simulation module contains signal patterns sub-module, IQ settings sub-module, antenna settings sub-module, target settings sub-module, clutter simulation sub-module, jamming simulation sub-module and noise simulation sub-module, and interface module contains LAN/GPIB interface sub-module and file interface sub-module. Finally, this paper introduces the test system, test theory and test process. By using of four typical cases, several modules is tested to validate the reliability and practicality of the radar signal simulation software, such as complex radar transmitting signal model, antenna model, target model and clutter statistical model.Compared with similar signal simulation software, the radar signal simulation software, constituting general radar signal simulator with many instruments, which can simulate a variety of complex radar transmitting signals and radar echo signals, has advantages of simpler operation, smaller error, higher precision, and easier function expansion or software upgrade, thus it can be widely used in radar testing field.