Molecular and Quantum Acoustics vol.

26, (2005) 165

DATA MODELING AND SIMULATION APPLIED TO RADAR

SIGNAL RECOGNITION

Adam KAWALEC, Robert OWCZAREK, Janusz DUDCZYK

Military University of Technology, Kaliskiego Str. 2, 00-908 Warsaw, POLAND

adam.kawalec@wat.edu.pl, robert.owczarek@wel.wat.edu.pl, jdudczyk@wp.pl

1. INTRODUCTION
One of the principal functions of the ESM/ELINT system is gathering basic information
from entire electromagnetic spectrum and its analysis. In most cases, based only on primary
features of incoming radar signals, the modern electronic intelligence system can not
recognize the different devices of the same type or class.
The radar signal is the source of information about recognized object, which is
propagated into surrounding environment. Radar emitter identification based on a collection
of received radar signals is a subject of wide interest in both civil and military applications.
The received signals usually consist of sequences of pulses emitted from multiple radar
transmitters. However, in modern radar systems as a multi-functions, more sophisticated
signal waveforms are emitted and the classical method of identification could not be enough
to separate those received pulses according to their originations. To classify radar emitters in
such an environment, we need to explore distinctive features from incoming radar signals.
To classify radar emitters and precisely identify each their instance in the surrounding
environment we need to explore the detailed structure inside each pulse. An emitter has its
own electrical signal structure inside each of its transmitted pulses due to both intentional and
unintentional modulations. It is very difficult work to perfectly employ a microwave sensors
in the combat identification, because it is a composite task that involves pulse measurements,
features extraction, normalization, selection, classification (recognition) and verification.

2. RADAR SIGNAL PROCESSING

One of the most difficult tasks in the radar signal processing is an optimal features
extraction and classification. The multifunction radar systems can not be classified and
precisely recognized by most of new and modern ESM and ELINT devices in the real time.
It is directly combined with a possibility of measurement radar features. It is hardly possible
166 Kawalec A., Owczarek R,. Dudczyk J.

to get a wide access to Low Probability of Intercepts radar signals. It is closely connected with
a low chance to measure as much radar signals features as indispensable.
In the radar signal recognition a great deal of information collected by the receivers is
presented in a real time. Specialized computer system must be used for the data analysis,
future extraction of the intercepted unknown signals. Some basic parameters of incoming
radar signals are as follows: radio frequency (RF), time of arrival (ToA), pulse width (PW),
angle of arrival (AoA), amplitude (A) and pulse repetition interval (PRI). Fig. 1 shows the
basic structure of radar signal processing.

3. RADAR SIGNAL RECEIVING

A radar intercept receiver passively collects incoming pulse samples from a number of
unknown emitters. The information such as pulse repetition interval(s), angle(s) of arrival,
carrier frequencies, and Doppler shifts are not usable. Our objectives are to: (1) determine the
number of emitters present; (2) classify the incoming pulses according to the emitters [1,2]
Emitter 1

1 receiver collects N pulses

Emitter 2

received pulses t
Receiver (passive)
K distinct emitters

Emitter K

Fig. 2. The physical scenario of radar pulse receiving

3.1. THE MODEL OF SIGNAL

We have the signal representation of the received pulses from K distinct emitters. The
radar receiver intercepts altogether N nonoverlapping pulses from the emitters. We designate
the nth received pulse by xn (t; qn ) where n = 1, 2,..., N . Here qn is association parameter which
assumes an integer value, qn {1,2,..., K } , such that if qn = k , then the nth pulse is from the kth
emitter. We can therefore express the nth pulse as [3]
j n +n (t n ) +qn
xn (t ; qn ) = An aqn (t n )e + vn (t n ) (1)

where An denotes the initial amplitude of the received pulse; n denotes the added phase of
the received pulse after transmission; n denotes the time delay of received pulse with respect

to the reference; n denotes the residual carrier frequency of the nth pulse; aqn (t ) is the

original envelope for the nth pulse such that aqn (t ) {a1 (t ), a2 (t ),..., aK (t )} ; qn (t ) is the original
Molecular and Quantum Acoustics vol. 26, (2005) 167

phase for the nth pulse such that qn (t ) = {1 (t ),2 (t ),...,K (t )} ; vn (t ) is the Gaussian noise
accompanying the nth pulse.
The received pulse in Eq.(1) contains several nuisance parameters: An , n , n and n .
In our application these parameters carry no useful information for the determination a
number of emitters and the pulse classification, and should therefore be removed. The
removal of these parameters necessitates the pulses pre-processing, the data can be expressed
jqn (t )
yn (t , qn ) = aqn (t )e + v%n (t ) = sqn (t ) + v%n (t ) (2)
In practice, pre-processing is done in the discrete time. Rewriting Eq.(2), we have
yn (mT , qn ) = sqn (mT ) + v%n (mT ) (3)
where T is the sampling interval of the pulses. The samples of the receiving pulses can be
expressed as two vectors: YAM from demodulator AM (amplitude) and YFM from
demodulator FM (frequency) [3]
YAM = [ ya1 , ya 2 ,..., yap , ya ( p +1) ,..., yan ]T (4)

YFM = [ y f 1 , y f 2 ,..., y fp , y f ( p +1) ,..., y fn ]T (5)

The result of the feature extraction process is the data set of intra-pulse radar signal
parameters. Graphical representation some of them is shown in Fig. 3.
a) b) c)
Y AM YAM YFM

yp P pulse (xp ; yp)

1
fpom + F 1
ymax (m) 2 + R
2
y P control
c

imp
fpom 0
R
Pcontrol

ydet P detection

1 1
fpom F R
n 2 2
xtp1 (m) xtpi (m) x (m)
tpj
xtpp (m) Xtp o FM
Pdetection
t n (m) tz (m) t o (m)
x tp1(m) xtpp(m) Xtp

xtp1(m) xp xtpp(m)
Xtp

Fig. 3. a) rise time, on time, fall time b) rise angle, fall angle c) line of regression

All features measured in the micro-scale of time (in the time and the frequency domain)
are combined to the feature vector X = [ x1 , x2 ,..., xN ]T .
Feature selection is the process of choosing a subset of the original predictive variables
X by eliminating redundant and uninformative ones. By extracting as much information as
possible from a given data set while using the smallest number of features, we can save
significant computing time and often build models that generalize better to unseen points. In
our research, we used the three original designed methods of features selection to test the
quality of new parameters of radar signal.
168 Kawalec A., Owczarek R,. Dudczyk J.

4. SIGNAL FEATURES PROCESSING BASED ON REGRESSION ANALYSIS

The process of delimitation of some distinctive features extracted from radar signals is
realized by using the following transformation [4]
t = T (p p , A) (6)
a11 0 ... ... ... ... ... 01, N p1p t1
0 0
a22 ... ... ... ... ... p2p t 2
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

0 ... ... aM ,M ... ... ... 0 p Mp
=
tM
0 ... ... bM +1,M ... ... ... 0 p Mp +1 t M +1
(7)

0 ... ... bM + 2 , M ... ... ... 0 p Mp + 2 t M +2
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

0 0 ... bN , M ... ... ... 0 N , N p Np t N

where A is a fixed transformation matrix.

fny
According to this transformation,
gA(fn)
transformed and pictured together g D(fn)
measured points (results of Global measured gC(fn) Punctual graphs
curv e
of dispersion
measurements) in Fig. 4 create the three
different punctual graphs of dispersion.
Based on clearly trails created by Lines of regression

g B(fn)
dispersed points, it is possible to advance
hypothesis that functions g A ( f n ) , g B ( f n ) ,
gC ( f n ) and g D ( f n ) can be classified to the
fnx
linear functions class. Fig. 4. The measured points dispersion in two-
dimensional Euclidean space

The equation linear of regress will be expressed by appropriate equation

( f n ) = f n +
g (8)
where
g ( fn ) = g A ( fn ) , g B ( f n ) , gC ( f n ) , g D ( f n )
T

= [ A , B , C , D ]
T

= [ A , B , C , D ]
T

Estimation some values of and is realized by minimise above Eq. (8)

E [ f n f n ] = 2 E [ ( f n f n ) f n ] E [ ( f nY f n ) f n ] = 0
Y 2 Y

(9)
E [ f nY f n ] = 2 E [ ( f nY f n ) ] E [ ( f n f n ) ] =0
2 Y


Molecular and Quantum Acoustics vol. 26, (2005) 169

In situation when average value will be replaced by suitable moments some following
equations will be received
m20 m10 m11
= (10)
m10 1 m01

m11 m10 m20 m11

m 1 m m01 m10 11 m10 m01
= 01 = 11 = = = m01 11 m10 (11)
m20 m10 m20 m102 20 m20 m10 20
m10 1 m10 1

Taking into consideration above received equations, equation linear of regress accepts
the following figure
11
g ( fn ) = f n + ( m01 11 m10 ) = 21 f n + (12)
20 20
T
11A 11B 11C 11D
= [ A , B , C , D ]
T
21 = , , , (13)
20A 20B 20C 20D
T
11A A 11B B 11C C 11D D T
= m01A m10 , m B
01 m10 , m C
01 m10 , = m D
01 m10 = A , B , C , D (14)
20A 20B 20
C
20D

O fn y
Charact erist ic point s
The T transformation, expressed by
fNSD PNS2 Eq. (6) and presented by some calculation

L NS2
makes possible to determine four linear
regress equations of second kind.
fSD PS2
Qualification of characteristic points is
LS2
Measured
realized by solution of these equations.
PS1 LNS1 PNS1
fSB f unct ion K(f n ) Regress lines of second kind and
LS1 characteristic points are pictured in Fig. 4
SN1 SS2
SS1
and Fig. 5.
fSA fNSB fSC O fn x
Estimated some co-ordinates of
Fig. 5. The graphic image of measured function
characteristic points PAB, PBC, PCD, PAD,
K(fn) crossed by characteristic points
(Fig. 4) are expressed in accordance with
appropriate equations
B A A B B A D C C D D C
PAB ; = PS 1 ( f SA , f SB ) ; PCD ; = PS 2 ( f SC , f SD )
A B A B C D C D
(15)
C B B C C B A AD D A
PBC ; = PNS 1 ( f NSB , f SB ) ; PAD D ; = PNS 2 ( f SC , f NSD )
B C B C A D A D

5. SIGNAL FEATURES PROCESSING BASED ON LINEAR DISCRIMINANT

ANALYSIS
170 Kawalec A., Owczarek R,. Dudczyk J.

Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is a well-known classical technique to find the

projection that maximizes the ratio of scatter among the data of different classes to scatter
within the data of the same class. Initially, we consider a within-class scatter matrix for the
within-class scatter. A within-class scatter matrix S w is defined as [5, 6]
c
Sw = (x mi )(x mi )T (16)
i =1 x Ci

where c is the number of classes, Ci is a set of data within the ith class, and mi is the mean of
the ith class. The within-class scatter matrix represents the degree of scatter within classes as
a summation of covariance matrices of each class. Next, we investigate a total scatter matrix
in order to consider a between-class scatter matrix for the between-class scatter. A total scatter
matrix St and a total mean vector m are defined as [5, 6]

St = (x m)(x m)T 1 1 c
, m= x= ni mi (17)
x n x n i =1

where n is the number of total data and ni is the number of data within the ith class. After
calculation we obtain [5, 6]
c
St = Sw + Sb , Sb = ni (mi m)(mi m)T (18)
i =1

where Sb is defined as a between-class scatter matrix, which represents the degree of scatter
between classes as a covariance matrix of means of each class.
The projection from a d-dimensional space to a p-dimensional is accomplished by
y = WT x (19)
where W is a d p transformation matrix.

For the scalar measure of scatter, we use the determinant of scatter matrices such as S% b

and S% w . Using this measure, the criterion function J ( W) can be defined as [6]

S% b WT S b W
J (W) = = (20)
S% w WT S w W

We can obtain the transformation matrix W as one that maximizes the criterion function
J ( W) . The columns of optimal W is the generalized eigenvector w i that correspond to the
largest eigenvalues i
Sb w i = i S w w i (21)
Molecular and Quantum Acoustics vol. 26, (2005) 171

6. DECISION MAKING
The main task of the classification process is making a decision about membership of
tested vector to the given class in the pattern space. The decision function can be expressed as
d k ( X) = max di ( X) X k (22)
i

In our research we used one of the most popular techniques of distance and similarity
measure as Euclidean distance [7]
2
d E ( x, y ) = (x y )T (x y )
(23)
distance of Sebestyan
w1 0 K 0
d 0 w2 K 0
2
d S ( x , y ) = ( x y )T W ( x y ) W= (24)
K K K K
0 0 K wm

Mahalanobis distance
n
d 1
2 1
d M ( x, y ) = ( x y ) R ( x y )
T R= ( x j x) ( x j x)T (25)
n j =1

and Cosine similarity

xT y
h C (x, y) =
xT xy T y
(26)
The set of samples that we had at our disposal had been finite. They were utilizing for
both: training and testing. We used to Holdout Method to testing data. The available data set
was divided into two subset, the third part for training and the two thirds for testing. The
correct identification coefficient (CIC) was used to evaluation of quality recognition
Lg
Jc = (27)
L

where Lg is a number of good classifications, and L is a number of all classifications.

7. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
During the measurement experiments it was registered about 424 data sets included
samples from 9 emitters. The nearest neighbors rule was used as a classification criteria.
Fig. 6a shows two worst radar signal features. The correct separation between the patterns of
tested emitters is almost impossible. Fig. 6b shows the middle case. Fig. 6c shows two best
features. In this case all emitters are perfectly separable. The KL expansion shows exactly
these features as a features with highest eigenvalue i and highest value of adjusting factor.
172 Kawalec A., Owczarek R,. Dudczyk J.

a) b) c)

Fig. 6. Selected results of the features selection process

The samples were taken from the nine emitters of the same class. LDA and TKL gave
almost the same results. We used an old features as RF, PRI and PW (regularly using in the
ESM devices) to compare them with our features. Experimental results indicate our new intra-
pulse features as the most discriminant and important (Fig. 7.a). Using the new features it was
easy to recognize all emitters because the patterns are safe distant between each other. We
have successfully tried to recognize three emitters using their signature in FM signal
(Fig. 7.b). The CIC for the new features equals 0.98 and for the old 0.47. These marks
eliminate the old features from the specific emitter identification.
a) b) c)
results of feature selection pulses from FM
- old feature
- new feature y
fn v =3
distinguish betw ee n feature

P3
amplitude

P1 P2

P0
number of feature number of samples
fnx

Fig. 7. a) features selection b) emitters recognition using one pulse c) measured function
qualified by characteristic points

8. CONCLUSION
Radar signal processing using intra-pulse features and Karhunen-Loevea
transformation makes a useful tool for electronic warfare devices. Our features were checked
by three different methods of data selection. Both LDA and TKL gave the similar results. The
measurement results are shown that the new transformed features include about 90 percent
recognizing information needed to resolve the complicated problem of radar signal
Molecular and Quantum Acoustics vol. 26, (2005) 173

classification. The results of the speed and numerical stability of algorithms seems to be
enough to put them into practice in the ESM devices.
In the near future, we will attempt to solve the problems of emitter identification using
only one pulse.

REFERENCES

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Abstracts. European Microwave Week 2004, Amsterdam, October 11-15, 2004, pp. 139.
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Radar Week In Poland, MICON 2004, Warsaw, May 17-19, 2004, vol.2, pp. 435-438.
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time domain, Ph.D. Dissertation, Electronics, Military University of Technology, Warsaw,
Poland, 2004.
4. Dudczyk J.: Applying the Radiated Emission to the Radio-electronic Devices
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