Detection by incoherent recombination with partial information

Matched filter (MF) detection in spread environments is often seriously degraded by the mismatch between the waveform replica and the composite signal formed by the spreading environment. Typically the spreading is caused by multiple delayed reflections due to scatter extent or multipath especially in shallow water sonar applications. It is possible to recover some detector performance by incoherent summation of weighted MF realizations in a process called incoherent recombining (IR). Several IR strategies for Gaussian data that assume varying amounts of prior scattering function (SF) information are examined, their receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) computed, and compared with those of the unrealizable "prescient" receiver (PR). They include optimally weighted and unweighted versions of the maximum likelihood estimator-correlator (EC), and variations of the "at-least-one" (ALO) detector that examines sequences of MF realizations declaring a detection if at least one threshold is crossed. As might be expected, performance improves with the accuracy of the prior information incorporated in the detector formulation.