Many-Objective RadarCom Signal Design via NSGA-II Genetic Algorithm Implementation and Simulation Analysis

In this communication, we investigate the performance of the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) in many-objective optimization scenarios pertaining to joint radar and communication functionality. We introduce five objectives relevant to sensing and secure communications and develop a cost function where these objectives can be individually prioritized by a user. We consider three scenarios: Radar Priority, Communication Priority, and All (Objectives) Equal; we then demonstrate the optimization results using an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) radarcom signal. The objectives with selected weights are shown to improve system performance and thereby validate the viability of our approach. The Radar Priority scenario showed the best improvement in probability of detection, PSLR, and PAPR. Compared to the baseline performance values, the improvements were: from 94.05% to 96%, from 11.7 to 13.6 dB, and from 9.46 to 7.09 dB, respectively. The communication scenario saw the best improvement in BER and clutter similarity (measured by NRMSE) from 3.52% to 0.39% and 0.87 to 0.59, respectively.