An orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system is adapted for radar ranging and imaging. A radar system includes an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) radio communications transmitter configured to transmit information bits using one or more payload symbols in a transmitted signal; and a receiver configured to: construct the payload symbols from the information bits provided by the transmitter; receive the payload symbols in the transmitted signal reflected from a target; apply a matched filter to the received payload symbols using the constructed payload symbols as a template; and process a magnitude response at an output of the matched filter for estimating location and imaging of the target.