SDR Based Dual-Polarized Radar

Principal Investigator: Professor Pratt

AWaRE REU Researcher: Henadz Krukovich, Gonzaga University

Project Description: This project involved the practical experience of building a prototype system based on off-the-shelf programmable hardware. The specific objective was to build-up a dual-polarization radar. Typical radar systems are single polarization systems with corresponding single channel transmitter and receiver operation. The objective of this project was to assemble a dual-polarized radar node incorporating a new SDR model (Ettus N310). The work involved hardware integration and software and firmware development to enable control with SDR graphical user interfaces.

Finding:  A number of challenges were identified and resolved, including identifying software bugs in the vendor equipment and developing software tools to enable radar operation, including the development of a method to download radar waveforms into the field programmable gate array (FPGA). The outcome of the project was an integrated system with many functions that were successfully tested.