Experimental Validation of Low-PAPR OFDM Waveforms for JRC Using Pilot-Aided Golay Sequences

This study investigates the use of pilot-aided Golay sequences to reduce the Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) waveforms for joint radar and communication (JRC) systems. OFDM, widely adopted in radar and communication applications, suffers from high PAPR, which limits radar performance, especially for detecting low Radar Cross Section (RCS) targets. While Golay sequences offer a maximum PAPR of 3 dB, integrating pilot tones-essential f or synchronization and channel equalization-modifies their properties. This work experimentally evaluates the performance of Golay and Quasi-Golay sequences with integrated pilots, demonstrating significant improvements in radar detection and communication compared to conventional OFDM waveforms.