Game-Theoretic Joint Coalition Formation and Power Allocation Strategy for Multitarget Tracking in Distributed Radar Network

In this article, a game-theoretic joint coalition formation and power allocation (JCFPA) strategy is investigated for multitarget tracking (MTT) in a distributed radar network. The main objective of the presented strategy is to minimize the total transmit power consumption and enhance the target tracking accuracy concurrently, while adhering to predefined requirements on the MTT performance and system illumination resource budgets, thus improving the low probability of intercept performance. To achieve this, a utility function is developed to evaluate the coalition structure, transmit power consumption, and tracking accuracy. Then, by formulating the cooperative interactions among radars as a coalition game, we establish an optimization model to optimize the coalition structure and power allocation for the distributed radar network. The existence of the Nash equilibrium solution for the game is proven mathematically. To address the optimization model, an iterative three-step algorithm is developed based on the sequential quadratic programming. Numerical results reveal that the presented JCFPA strategy obtains superior system performance compared to other benchmarks.