LOCAL SNR CONSIDERATIONS IN DECENTRALIZED CFAR DETECTION

We consider the decentralized detection problem, involving N sensors a nd a central processor, in which the sensors transmit unquantized data to the fusion center. Assuming a homogeneous background for constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) analysis, we obtain the performances of the sy stem for the Swerling I and Swerling III target models. We demonstrate that a simple nonparametric fusion rule at the central processor is s ufficient for nearly optimum performance, The effect of the local sign al-to-noise ratios (SNRs) on the performances of the optimum detector and two suboptimum detectors is also examined. Finally, we obtain a se t of conditions, related to the SNRs, under which better performance m ay be obtained by using decentralized detection as compared with centr alized detection.