In this thesis adaptive radar transmit waveform design and its effects on active communications systems are explored. Specifically, design for point targets (i.e., impulse response targets) is investigated. The transmit waveform is optimized in the frequency domain by accounting for the modulation spectrum of the communication system while trying to efficiently use the remaining spectrum. Design aspects of the adaptive waveform are investigated, and an upper bound for the waterfilling variable is presented. With the use of adaptive radar waveform, it is shown that the symbol error ratio (SER) performance of the communication system is minimally affected compared to the SER performance when the system is interfered with by a classical non-adaptive pulsed-radar waveform where severe degradation is evident. Moreover, the detection performance of the adaptive waveform is less impacted by the active communication compared to that of the pulsed radar waveform design. In other words, the radar is able to coexist with a friendly communication system.

Subjects: waveform design; spectrum sharing; cognitive radar; electronic warfare; spectrum management.