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System and method for detecting emitters signals having multi-valued illumination times

System and method for detecting emitters signals having multi-valued illumination times description/claims

This application is a continuation under 35 U.S.C. §120 of commonly owned patent application Ser. No. 10/675,541, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETECTING EMITTERS SIGNALS HAVING MULTI-VALUED ILLUMINATION TIMES, filed Sep. 30, 2003, and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to commonly-owned U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/427,103, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SCAN TABLE ANALYSIS AND GENERATION, filed on Nov. 18, 2002 under attorney docket no. L0562.70031US00, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

The invention generally relates to signal detection, and more particularly, to detecting and analyzing signals generated by emitters.

Detection systems exist for detecting signals generated by emitters which are of interest. For example, there are scanners (e.g., a police scanner) that are capable of scanning a frequency band for transmissions within that frequency band. In the case of a police scanner, channels are scanned sequentially to find a signal of interest. Scanning is achieved by tuning receiver hardware to a particular frequency to observe one or more transmissions within that particular frequency.

There are more sophisticated systems to detect transmitted signals that use other methods for determining signals of interest. For instance, there are what are referred to as Electronic Support Measures/Electronic Intelligence (ESM/ELINT) systems for conducting surveillance (e.g., radar, and other signals across a wide range of frequency spectrums). These systems detect one or more signals produced by emitters (often called “threats”) that are detected and observed.

For example, in a military aircraft or other vehicle, enemy signals (e.g., radar) may be observed that are capable of detecting the vehicle (e.g., an airplane). These threats may need to be determined prior to detection to ensure the safety of the vehicle, and are often observed and classified to identify the particular threat. For example, certain signals may have particular signatures that are indicative of certain types of emitters. Further, there may be a need to detect and identify the location of a threat (e.g., a radar installation) for targeting purposes.

There is a problem in that there may be multiple threats but only a finite number of resources to detect them. More particularly, there may be hundreds of threats, but receiver capabilities do not allow all threats to be observed simultaneously at all frequencies. However, there is a need to scan the frequency spectrum in an efficient manner to detect all of the signals of interest. In some cases, there is a need to have assurance that a threat will be detected in time to respond to that threat. In the case of detection of a radar emitter by a vehicle, it may be also necessary to detect the threat before the threat is capable of detecting the vehicle.

There is difficulty in balancing the need for detecting each of numerous possible threats because of the finite resources of the detection system. That is, hardware and/or software (e.g., memory, processing capability, etc.) of the detection system may be limited to monitor only certain portions of the frequency spectrum of interest or may be limited to detecting a limited number of threats. Practically, there are a number of threats that are concurrently transmitting that should be detected, but it is expensive from a hardware standpoint to monitor all frequencies of interest at all times to detect all threats simultaneously. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,020,842 discloses one method for improving the probability of intercepting data transmitted in a number of different frequency bands. In summary, there is a continuing need for improved methods for detecting and analyzing emitter signals.

According to one aspect of the invention, a method for detecting an emitter signal that presents a plurality of illumination times to a detecting receiver is provided. The method comprises acts of: determining at least one first illumination time of the plurality of illumination times; determining at least one second illumination time of the plurality of illumination times; and iteratively searching for a detection revisit time that is used to detect the first and second illumination times while satisfying an acceptable probability of detecting the emitter signal.

According to another aspect of the invention, a computer-readable medium is provided, the computer-readable medium having computer-readable signals stored thereon that define instructions that, as a result of being executed by a computer, instruct the computer to perform a method for detecting an emitter signal that presents a plurality of illumination times to a detecting receiver. The method comprises acts of: determining at least one first illumination time of the plurality of illumination times; determining at least one second illumination time of the plurality of illumination times; and iteratively searching for a detection revisit time that is used to detect the first and second illumination times while satisfying an acceptable probability of detecting the emitter signal.

Further features and advantages of the present invention as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals indicate like or functionally similar elements. Additionally, the left-most one or two digits of a reference numeral identifies the drawing in which the reference numeral first appears.

The invention is pointed out with particularity in the appended claims. The above and further advantages of this invention may be better understood by referring to the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which similar reference numbers indicate the same or similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a detection system according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a detection system according to another embodiment of the invention;

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