Optimal signal sets for non-Gaussian detectors

Identifying a maximally separated set of signals is important in the design of modems. The notion of optimality is dependent on the model chosen to de scribe noise in the measurements; while some analytic results can be derive d under the assumption of Gaussian noise, no such techniques are known for choosing signal sets in the non-Gaussian case. To obtain numerical solution s for non-Gaussian detectors, minimax problems are transformed into nonline ar programs, resulting in a novel formulation yielding problems with relati vely few variables and many inequality constraints. Using sequential quadra tic programming, optimal signal sets are obtained for a variety of noise di stributions.