Probability of Pulse Overlap as a Quantitative Indicator of Signal Environment Complexity

Abstract

Introduction. Simultaneous operation of numerous sources of radio emission form complex signal environment. Different devices with the common name “wideband analyzers” (WBA) are widely used to analyze and to control such environment. There is currently a need for developing the quantitative characteristics of a complex signal environment, which will make it possible to predict the stability of the WBA operation.Aim. The development of the indicator of the signal environment complexity, which will make possible the quantitative assessment of such environment.Materials and methods. To provide the desired indicator, simulation and mathematical tools for random events description are used. All calculations are performed using MatLab.Results. The principles of disturbances in the WBA receiver and algorithmic errors in the processing of overlapped signals are described. To quantify the “complexity” of the signal environment it is proposed to use the probability that pulses from several sources overlap in time. This allows one to compare signal environments with each other. The new analytical expression for estimating the pulse overlap probability is proposed. Functions of the pulse overlap probability from the complex signal environment parameters were obtained.Conclusion. According to the comparative analysis of the calculations using proposed analytical expression and simulation, the new expression allows one to achieve the calculation speed up to 6 orders of magnitude higher with an error below 7% compared to the simulation. The high performance of the calculations using the proposed expression allows one to simulate the complex signal environment in dynamics more efficiently.

Keywords

• complex signal environment
• wideband signal analysis
• pulse overlap probability
• pulse sequences overlap
• pulse trains overlap
• signal environment analysis