Combining an FMCW radar system with FSK modulation to a joint communication and sensing system

Abstract Due to the rising occupancy of the radio spectrum, new strategies for covering the ever increasing amount of data are necessary. This work presents a system for integrating data transmission into a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar by modulating the radar signal with frequency shift keying (FSK). The system offers a high chirp bandwidth of 5 GHz and uses the 60 GHz band. The FSK carrier frequency affects the noise level. A higher frequency leads to a lower noise floor due to 1/ f -noise but requires a higher sampling rate. Therefore, 15 MHz was chosen as a compromise. A high data rate allows for a fast data transmission but requires a short chirp time, which leads to a noisier frequency chirp. The radar parameters are also affected by this choice. This leads to a baud rate of 20.8 kbit/s. With a higher order FSK, higher data rates are possible. This proves that the data transmission via FMCW radar signals is possible and a first choice if lower data rates are sufficient, because the hardware effort is comparatively low.