A Rao Test With Enhanced Selectivity Properties in Homogeneous Scenarios

This correspondence focuses on the design of a selective receiver for homogeneous scenarios. To this end, at the design stage it is assumed that the cell under test contains a noise-like interferer in addition to thermal noise, clutter, and to the possible signal of interest; a set of secondary data, free of signal components, is available: such data share a common covariance matrix that is equal to that of thermal noise plus clutter in the cell under test. Under the above assumptions, an adaptive detector implementing the RAO test is designed. A preliminary performance assessment, conducted assuming that the cell under test and the secondary data share one and the same covariance matrix of the overall disturbance (including possible noise-like interferers), shows that the newly proposed detector can provide enhanced rejection capabilities with respect to its natural competitor (the W-ABORT). It can also outperform the W-ABORT for matched signals.