Performance evaluation of ESM deinterleaver using TOA analysis

A radar electronic support measures (ESM) system performs the functions of threat detection and area surveillance to determine the identity of surrounding emitters. ESM systems incorporate a passive receiver that measures the parameters of the detected radar pulses and a deinterleaver processor that sorts and segregates the received radar pulses into a number of radar cells depending on the mono-pulse parameters of the received pulses. These radar cells are submitted to the threat library of the EW system and compared with stored parameters of known radars to determine the identity of the estimated radar cell and take appropriate action against it. If there is no match with any radar in the threat library, the library is updated to include this new intercepted radar. However, if the deinterleaver does not work properly, false radars are generated. These false radars force the EW system to use military resources against false threats. This paper presents a method for evaluating the performance of the deinterleaving algorithms based on the TOA information inside the estimated radar cells. Thus, if some of the estimated radar cells achieve a certain confidence level, only these cells are submitted to the threat library. This method is useful in avoiding wasting limited resources, and can be applied to stable, jitter, and stagger PRI radars.