Skip to main content
  • Research Article
  • Open access
  • Published:

Performance of Distributed CFAR Processors in Pearson Distributed Clutter

Abstract

This paper deals with the distributed constant false alarm rate (CFAR) radar detection of targets embedded in heavy-tailed Pearson distributed clutter. In particular, we extend the results obtained for the cell averaging (CA), order statistics (OS), and censored mean level CMLD CFAR processors operating in positive alpha-stable (P&S) random variables to more general situations, specifically to the presence of interfering targets and distributed CFAR detectors. The receiver operating characteristics of the greatest of (GO) and the smallest of (SO) CFAR processors are also determined. The performance characteristics of distributed systems are presented and compared in both homogeneous and in presence of interfering targets. We demonstrate, via simulation results, that the distributed systems when the clutter is modelled as positive alpha-stable distribution offer robustness properties against multiple target situations especially when using the "OR" fusion rule.

References

  1. Gini F, Lombardini F, Verrazzani L: Coverage area analysis for decentralized detection in weibull clutter. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 1999,35(2):437-444. 10.1109/7.766927

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Srinivasan R: Robust radar detection using ensemble CFAR processing. IEE Proceedings: Radar, Sonar and Navigation 2000,147(6):291-296. 10.1049/ip-rsn:20000648

    Google Scholar 

  3. Rohling H: Radar CFAR thresholding in clutter and multiple target situations. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 1983,19(4):608-621.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Barkat M, Varshney PK: Decentralized CFAR signal detection. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 1989,25(2):141-149. 10.1109/7.18676

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Elias-Fuste AR, Broquetas-Ibars A, Antequera J, Yuste J: CFAR data fusion center with inhomogeneous receivers. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 1992,28(1):276-285. 10.1109/7.135453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Tsakalides P, Raspanti R, Nikias CL: Angle/Doppler estimation in heavy-tailed clutter backgrounds. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 1999,35(2):419-436. 10.1109/7.766926

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Pierce RD: Application of the positive alpha-stable distribution. Proceedings of IEEE Signal Processing Workshop on Higher-Order Statistics (SPW-HOS '97), July 1997, Banff, Alberta, Canada 420–424.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Tsakalides P, Nikias CL: Robust space-time adaptive processing (STAP) in non-Gaussian clutter environments. IEE Proceedings: Radar, Sonar and Navigation 1999,146(2):84-93. 10.1049/ip-rsn:19990233

    Google Scholar 

  9. Amiri MV, Amindavar H: A new maximum a posteriori CFAR based on stability in sea clutter state-space model. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP '05), March 2005, Philadelphia, Pa, USA 5: 601–604.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Nikias CL, Shao M: Signal Processing with Alpha-Stable Distributions and Applications. John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, USA; 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Tsakalides P, Trinic F, Nikias CL: Performance assessment of CFAR processors in Pearson-distributed clutter. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 2000,36(4):1377-1386. 10.1109/7.892685

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Papoulis A: Probability Random Variables and Stochastic Processes. 3rd edition. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, USA; 1991.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zoubeida Messali.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Messali, Z., Soltani, F. Performance of Distributed CFAR Processors in Pearson Distributed Clutter. EURASIP J. Adv. Signal Process. 2007, 021825 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1155/2007/21825

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2007/21825

Keywords