Optimal design of distributed signal detection systems

A distributed signal detection problem is considered in such a manner that a number of local detectors transmit their individual decisions, based on their own observations, to a global decision maker (data fusion center), which combine the local (preliminary) decisions to make the final decision. A DBT formulation of the binary DDF problem is described and the necessary conditions for the person-by-person optimal decision rule of overall system (local detectors) are derived. The special case of identical detectors with independent observation is investigated with an illustrative example.