Ray-Tracing Modelling and Simulation of Radio Scattering from Complex Objects for Passive Radar Applications

This thesis project was finalized to the study of Cooperative Passive Coherent Location solutions aiming for the development of the Joint Communication and Radar Sensing technology. CPCL extends the well-known idea of passive radar, which exploits opportunistic radio signal for sensing, by introducing cooperative principles. It can be considered a green technology because of the reuse of radio resources, both in terms of frequency bands and hardware, and because it enables the implementation of new services with zero environmental impact. Moreover, since the radio emitter density in urban environment will grow exponentially in the next years, there is a huge potential for intelligent traffic control, road safety, and other smart city applications not yet exploited. Beyond the direct impact of this technology on carbon emissions, its indirect impact is more relevant, as it is likely to positively influence the emissions caused by other sectors. This thesis represents the first step of the project. In a nutshell, the project focuses on the modelling and simulation of the radio signal scattering from complex objects and the integration of the models into the dynamic ray-tracing tool developed by the University of Bologna, 3DScat. Ray-tracing simulations have been carried out starting from simple geometries to characterize the general behaviour and limits of 3DScat, up to more complex geometries such as cars. Electromagnetic simulations were performed to understand the validity of the ray-tracing simulation results. The FEKO simulation software was used to calculate the (scattered) near field of the targets, which is the metric for comparison. The results show good agreement between ray-tracing simulations and electromagnetic simulations until cases where 3DScat limitations occurs. Improvements of the software based on this study results are suggested.