ON DETECTION OF A KNOWN SIGNAL IN A NON-GAUSSIAN NOISE PROCESS

In this paper, three receiver designs for the detection of a known signal in an additive non†Gaussian noise process are considered. The noise process consists of white Gaussian noise modulated by a random†spectrum level. The first receiver considered is an optimum (likelihood) processor and the remaining two receivers are suboptimum designs consisting of a cross correlator and a likelihood correlator. The basic processing operations of the three receivers are investigated and compared on the basis of their effects in observation space. The performance of each receiver is evaluated and presented in terms of ROC curves. A comparison of the performance curves indicates a loss in optimum performance as compared to the Gaussian noise case and a significant loss in performance of the suboptimum receivers relative to the optimum receiver. © 1968, Acoustical Society of America. All rights reserved.