Radar data buffering
A radar system includes transmitters and receivers. The transmitters transmit radio signals. The receivers receive radio signals that include the transmitted radio signals reflected from objects in an environment. Each receiver has a controller, a buffer, and a post-buffer processor. The receiver processes the received radio signals and stored data samples in the buffer. The buffer operates in a plurality of modes defined by the controller. Modes of operation are selected for each of the respective buffers. Each buffer's mode of operation is selected to perform a desired processing on respective data samples. Each of the post-buffer processors receive their respective data samples from the respective buffers and performs further data processing on the respective data samples.
1 . A method for operating a radar sensing system comprising a transmitter and a receiver, the receiver having an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a buffer, the method comprising:
transmitting, with the transmitter, radio signals;
receiving, with the receiver, radio signals that include the transmitted radio signals transmitted by the transmitter and reflected from objects in an environment;
sampling, with the analog-to-digital converter of the receiver, the received radio signals and outputting data samples;
storing the data samples in the buffer of the receiver;
selecting, with a controller, two or more modes of operation for the buffer;
operating the buffer in the selected two or more modes of operation with a same set of data samples stored in the buffer and outputting data samples from the buffer;
receiving, with a post-buffer processor, the data samples output from the buffer; and performing, with the post-buffer processor, at least one of correlation processing to determing ranges of the objects and Doppler processing to determine a velocity of the objects.
2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising performing, with a pre-buffer processor, processing operations on data samples of the received radio signals and outputting those processed data samples to the buffer.
3 . The method of claim 2 further comprising removing, with the pre-buffer processor, interference caused by another radar sensing system from the received radio signals.
4 . The method of claim 2 further comprising changing a sample rate of the ADC with the pre-buffer processor.
5 . The method of claim 1 further comprising passing, with a pre-buffer processor, data samples of the received radio signals to the buffer without processing the data samples.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the two or more modes of operation are selected from throttle, loopback, replay, and bypass modes.
7 . The method of claim 1 further comprising performing, with the post-buffer processor, a plurality of different correlation processing operations on a same set of data samples stored in the buffer.
8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein a first correlation processing operation of the plurality of different correlation processing operations performs correlation processing over a first selected range of range bins, and wherein a second correlation processing operation of the plurality of different correlation processing operations performs correlation processing over a second selected range of range bins.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the post-buffer processor performs a plurality of different Doppler processing operations on a same set of data samples stored in the buffer.
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of different Doppler processing operations comprises first and second Doppler processing operations, wherein the first Doppler processing operation produces Doppler frequencies that are different from Doppler frequencies produced by the second Doppler processing operation.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter and the receiver are each configured for installation and use on a vehicle.