  The existing linear frequency modulated (LFM) (or step frequency) and random
noise synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems may correspond to the frequency
hopping (FH) and direct sequence (DS) spread spectrum systems in the past
second and third generation wireless communications. Similar to the current and
future wireless communications generations, in this paper, we propose OFDM SAR
imaging, where a sufficient cyclic prefix (CP) is added to each OFDM pulse. The
sufficient CP insertion converts an inter-symbol interference (ISI) channel
from multipaths into multiple ISI-free subchannels as the key in a wireless
communications system, and analogously, it provides an inter-range-cell
interference (IRCI) free (high range resolution) SAR image in a SAR system. The
sufficient CP insertion along with our newly proposed SAR imaging algorithm
particularly for the OFDM signals also differentiates this paper from all the
existing studies in the literature on OFDM radar signal processing. Simulation
results are presented to illustrate the high range resolution performance of
our proposed CP based OFDM SAR imaging algorithm.
