How Close Can I Be? - A Comprehensive Analysis of Cellular Interference on ATC Radar

Increasing data traffic demands over wireless spectrum have necessitated spectrum sharing and coexistence between heterogeneous systems such as radar and cellular communications systems. In this context, we specifically investigate the co-channel coexistence between an air traffic control (ATC) radar and a wide area cellular communication (comms) system. We present a comprehensive characterization and analysis of interference caused by the comms system on the ATC radar with respect to multiple parameters such as radar range, protection radius around the radar, and radar antenna elevation angle. The analysis suggests that maintaining a protection radius of 50 km around the radar will ensure the required INR protection criterion of -10 dB at the radar receiver with ~0.9 probability, even when the radar beam is in the same horizon as the comms BS. Detailed evaluations of the radar target detection performance provide a framework to choose appropriate protection radii around the radar to meet specific performance requirements.