Envelope Threshold Detection in a Class of Non-Gaussian Interference

This paper considers the detection of a sinusoidal or chirp signal imbedded in wideband FM interference (as might be generated by some types of active jamming), such that after pulse compression or other integration, the interference can be approximated by a sum of sinusoids of independent phase. The detection probability in such non-Gaussian noise is compared to that for Gaussian noise, with the Gaussian result approached, as required, in the limit that the number of sinusoids in the sum increases without bound. For detection using a comparison of the envelope with a threshold which yields a given false-alarm probability (CFAR detection), the detection probability is improved over the case of Gaussian noise, so that the usual approach basing the design on Gaussian noise would be conservative. Using a threshold determined from the envelope mean, the FM interference yields a lower false-alarm probability than for Gaussian noise, with detection probability only slightly degraded.