{"id":{"repo_id":"cape-town","oai_identifier":"oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/30829"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cape-town/oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/30829","repository":{"repo_id":"cape-town","name":"University of Cape Town","base_url":"https://open.uct.ac.za/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Synchronising coherent networked radar using low-cost GPS-disciplined oscillators","abstract":"This text evaluates the feasibility of synchronising coherent, pulsed-Doppler, networked, radars with carrier frequencies of a few gigahertz and moderate bandwidths of tens of megahertz across short baselines of a few kilometres using low-cost quartz GPSDOs based on one-way GPS time transfer. It further assesses the use of line-of-sight (LOS) phase compensation, where the direct sidelobe breakthrough is used as the phase reference, to improve the GPS-disciplined oscillator (GPSDO) synchronised bistatic Doppler performance. Coherent bistatic, multistatic, and networked radars require accurate time, frequency, and phase synchronisation. Global positioning system (GPS) synchronisation is precise, low-cost, passive and covert, and appears well-suited to synchronise networked radar. However, very few published examples exist. An imperfectly synchronised bistatic transmitter-receiver is modelled. Measures and plots are developed enabling the rapid selection of appropriate synchronisation technologies. Three low-cost, open, versatile, and extensible, quartz-based GPSDOs are designed and calibrated at zero-baselines. These GPSDOs are uniquely capable of acquiring phase-lock four times faster than conventional phase-locked loops (PLLs) and a new time synchronisation mechanism enables low-jitter sub-10 ns oneway GPS time synchronisation. In collaboration with University College London, UK, the 2.4 GHz coherent pulsed-Doppler networked radar, called NetRAD, is synchronised using the University of Cape Town developed GPSDOs. This resulted in the first published example of pulsed-Doppler phase synchronisation using GPS. A tri-static experiment is set up in Simon’s Bay, South Africa, with a maximum baseline of 2.3 km. The Roman Rock lighthouse was used as a static target to simultaneously assess the range, frequency, phase, and Doppler performance of the monostatic, bistatic, and LOS phase corrected bistatic returns. The real-world results compare well to that predicted by the earlier developed bistatic model and zero-baseline calibrations. GPS timing limits the radar bandwidth to less than 37.5 MHz when it is required to synchronise to within the range resolution. Low-cost quartz GPSDOs offer adequate frequency synchronisation to ensure a target radial velocity accuracy of better than 1 km/h and frequency drift of less than the Doppler resolution over integration periods of one second or less. LOS phase compensation, when used in combination with low-cost GPSDOs, results in near monostatic pulsed-Doppler performance with a subclutter visibility improvement of about 30 dB.","abstract_html":"This text evaluates the feasibility of synchronising coherent, pulsed-Doppler, networked, radars with carrier frequencies of a few gigahertz and moderate bandwidths of tens of megahertz across short baselines of a few kilometres using low-cost quartz GPSDOs based on one-way GPS time transfer. It further assesses the use of line-of-sight (LOS) phase compensation, where the direct sidelobe breakthrough is used as the phase reference, to improve the GPS-disciplined oscillator (GPSDO) synchronised bistatic Doppler performance. Coherent bistatic, multistatic, and networked radars require accurate time, frequency, and phase synchronisation. Global positioning system (GPS) synchronisation is precise, low-cost, passive and covert, and appears well-suited to synchronise networked radar. However, very few published examples exist. An imperfectly synchronised bistatic transmitter-receiver is modelled. Measures and plots are developed enabling the rapid selection of appropriate synchronisation technologies. Three low-cost, open, versatile, and extensible, quartz-based GPSDOs are designed and calibrated at zero-baselines. These GPSDOs are uniquely capable of acquiring phase-lock four times faster than conventional phase-locked loops (PLLs) and a new time synchronisation mechanism enables low-jitter sub-10 ns oneway GPS time synchronisation. In collaboration with University College London, UK, the 2.4 GHz coherent pulsed-Doppler networked radar, called NetRAD, is synchronised using the University of Cape Town developed GPSDOs. This resulted in the first published example of pulsed-Doppler phase synchronisation using GPS. A tri-static experiment is set up in Simon’s Bay, South Africa, with a maximum baseline of 2.3 km. The Roman Rock lighthouse was used as a static target to simultaneously assess the range, frequency, phase, and Doppler performance of the monostatic, bistatic, and LOS phase corrected bistatic returns. The real-world results compare well to that predicted by the earlier developed bistatic model and zero-baseline calibrations. GPS timing limits the radar bandwidth to less than 37.5 MHz when it is required to synchronise to within the range resolution. Low-cost quartz GPSDOs offer adequate frequency synchronisation to ensure a target radial velocity accuracy of better than 1 km/h and frequency drift of less than the Doppler resolution over integration periods of one second or less. LOS phase compensation, when used in combination with low-cost GPSDOs, results in near monostatic pulsed-Doppler performance with a subclutter visibility improvement of about 30 dB.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Sandenbergh, Jacobus S"],"institution":"Department of Electrical Engineering","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Inggs, Michael R"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019","date_published":"2019","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:22:37Z","subjects":["Electrical Engineering"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30829","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Inggs, Michael R"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Sandenbergh, Jacobus S"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2020-01-29T08:57:48Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2020-01-29T08:57:48Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2019"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.department","label":"Dc Publisher Department","values":["Department of Electrical Engineering"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Doctoral Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["PhD"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Electrical Engineering"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30829"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This text evaluates the feasibility of synchronising coherent, pulsed-Doppler, networked, radars with carrier frequencies of a few gigahertz and moderate bandwidths of tens of megahertz across short baselines of a few kilometres using low-cost quartz GPSDOs based on one-way GPS time transfer. It further assesses the use of line-of-sight (LOS) phase compensation, where the direct sidelobe breakthrough is used as the phase reference, to improve the GPS-disciplined oscillator (GPSDO) synchronised bistatic Doppler performance. Coherent bistatic, multistatic, and networked radars require accurate time, frequency, and phase synchronisation. Global positioning system (GPS) synchronisation is precise, low-cost, passive and covert, and appears well-suited to synchronise networked radar. However, very few published examples exist. An imperfectly synchronised bistatic transmitter-receiver is modelled. Measures and plots are developed enabling the rapid selection of appropriate synchronisation technologies. Three low-cost, open, versatile, and extensible, quartz-based GPSDOs are designed and calibrated at zero-baselines. These GPSDOs are uniquely capable of acquiring phase-lock four times faster than conventional phase-locked loops (PLLs) and a new time synchronisation mechanism enables low-jitter sub-10 ns oneway GPS time synchronisation. In collaboration with University College London, UK, the 2.4 GHz coherent pulsed-Doppler networked radar, called NetRAD, is synchronised using the University of Cape Town developed GPSDOs. This resulted in the first published example of pulsed-Doppler phase synchronisation using GPS. A tri-static experiment is set up in Simon’s Bay, South Africa, with a maximum baseline of 2.3 km. The Roman Rock lighthouse was used as a static target to simultaneously assess the range, frequency, phase, and Doppler performance of the monostatic, bistatic, and LOS phase corrected bistatic returns. The real-world results compare well to that predicted by the earlier developed bistatic model and zero-baseline calibrations. GPS timing limits the radar bandwidth to less than 37.5 MHz when it is required to synchronise to within the range resolution. Low-cost quartz GPSDOs offer adequate frequency synchronisation to ensure a target radial velocity accuracy of better than 1 km/h and frequency drift of less than the Doppler resolution over integration periods of one second or less. LOS phase compensation, when used in combination with low-cost GPSDOs, results in near monostatic pulsed-Doppler performance with a subclutter visibility improvement of about 30 dB."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Synchronising coherent networked radar using low-cost GPS-disciplined oscillators"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Inggs, Michael R"],"dc:creator":["Sandenbergh, Jacobus S"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2020-01-29T08:57:48Z"],"dc:date.available":["2020-01-29T08:57:48Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2019"],"dc:description.abstract":["This text evaluates the feasibility of synchronising coherent, pulsed-Doppler, networked, radars with carrier frequencies of a few gigahertz and moderate bandwidths of tens of megahertz across short baselines of a few kilometres using low-cost quartz GPSDOs based on one-way GPS time transfer. It further assesses the use of line-of-sight (LOS) phase compensation, where the direct sidelobe breakthrough is used as the phase reference, to improve the GPS-disciplined oscillator (GPSDO) synchronised bistatic Doppler performance. Coherent bistatic, multistatic, and networked radars require accurate time, frequency, and phase synchronisation. Global positioning system (GPS) synchronisation is precise, low-cost, passive and covert, and appears well-suited to synchronise networked radar. However, very few published examples exist. An imperfectly synchronised bistatic transmitter-receiver is modelled. Measures and plots are developed enabling the rapid selection of appropriate synchronisation technologies. Three low-cost, open, versatile, and extensible, quartz-based GPSDOs are designed and calibrated at zero-baselines. These GPSDOs are uniquely capable of acquiring phase-lock four times faster than conventional phase-locked loops (PLLs) and a new time synchronisation mechanism enables low-jitter sub-10 ns oneway GPS time synchronisation. In collaboration with University College London, UK, the 2.4 GHz coherent pulsed-Doppler networked radar, called NetRAD, is synchronised using the University of Cape Town developed GPSDOs. This resulted in the first published example of pulsed-Doppler phase synchronisation using GPS. A tri-static experiment is set up in Simon’s Bay, South Africa, with a maximum baseline of 2.3 km. The Roman Rock lighthouse was used as a static target to simultaneously assess the range, frequency, phase, and Doppler performance of the monostatic, bistatic, and LOS phase corrected bistatic returns. The real-world results compare well to that predicted by the earlier developed bistatic model and zero-baseline calibrations. GPS timing limits the radar bandwidth to less than 37.5 MHz when it is required to synchronise to within the range resolution. Low-cost quartz GPSDOs offer adequate frequency synchronisation to ensure a target radial velocity accuracy of better than 1 km/h and frequency drift of less than the Doppler resolution over integration periods of one second or less. LOS phase compensation, when used in combination with low-cost GPSDOs, results in near monostatic pulsed-Doppler performance with a subclutter visibility improvement of about 30 dB."],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30829"],"dc:publisher.department":["Department of Electrical Engineering"],"dc:subject":["Electrical Engineering"],"dc:title":["Synchronising coherent networked radar using low-cost GPS-disciplined oscillators"],"dc:type":["Doctoral Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["Doctoral"],"dc:type.qualificationname":["PhD"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:22:37Z"}