On the Shapiro-Wilk Test for the Detection of Pulsed Sinusoidal Radio Frequency Interference

The Shapiro-Wilk (S-W) test is a test of normality recommended in the statistical literature for its effectiveness in detecting a wide-variety of non-gaussian signals. Tests for normality can be used for the detection of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). However, so far only the kurtosis test has been used for this purpose. The performance of the S-W test against pulsed sinusoidal sources is studied in this paper as an alternative method of RFI detection. An overview of the S-W test is provided, and implementation of the test in digital hardware is discussed. Performance of the test was analyzed using Monte Carlo simulations due to the difficulties in obtaining an analytical solution. Results show that the test can provide reasonable performance in detecting pulsed sinu-soidal RFI, and the effect of quantization is minimal in the sensitivity obtained.