Robust Joint Accumulation and Detection for Discrete Frequency Coded Waveform Signals at Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio

In the radar electronic reconnaissance environment, the Discrete Frequency Coded (DFC) waveform signals emitted by non-cooperative targets with low probability of interception and anti-interference is hard to be accumulated and detected under low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) conditions. Consequently, a joint accumulation and detection algorithm is proposed in this paper. First, correlated accumulation and incoherent accumulation are jointly used to obtain signal envelopes from low SNR environments. Then, the bi-directional Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) threshold and pulse edge decision criteria are used to detect pulses and estimate accurate time of arrival and pulse width. Compared with conventional algorithms, the proposed algorithm could realize the accurate detection of discrete frequency coded waveform signals without any prior information, with low detection false alarm rate and good robustness. Simulation experiments verify the effectiveness and robustness of the algorithm in this paper.