The Boeing Company
System and method for detecting pulses using fused signal power/phase modulation detection

Abstract:

A signal power detection method is fused with a double-difference phase modulation detection method to provide a higher-performance method of pulse detection for any digital receiver. The first pulse detection technique uses a signal power threshold. When the square of the magnitude of a pulse crosses the signal power threshold, the beginning of a pulse is declared and pulse processing starts. The second pulse detection technique is model based and uses a windowed detector that crosses a phase difference threshold when the pulse has consistent second-order (in general d-th order) difference phase values within the window. The first technique has low latency and is independent of pulse width, but only operates well at SNR values greater than 15 dB. The second technique has higher latency and requires a minimum pulse width, but operates at lower (approximately 0 dB) SNR values.