IMPROVED THRESHOLDING TECHNIQUE FOR THE MONOBIT RECEIVER

by Buck, Jonathan Gordon

Wideband digital receivers typically use a very high sampling rate to capture a signal for near real-time processing. Very robust digital techniques, like the Monobit FFT technique, have been developed to provide near real-time processing of captured timedomain signals. Most of these techniques trade accuracy for processing speed by approximating computationally complex mathematical operations. The approximation sometimes makes it difficult to detect multiple signals if the difference between their amplitudes is more than a few dB. This thesis presents a dynamic thresholding technique for multi-tone signal detection. The technique is based on setting an allowable ratio between the magnitude of the largest signal detected and any secondary signals. The technique is appropriate for any near real-time wideband receiver like the Monobit receiver. In the thesis we explain the progression to the "Ratio Thresholding Technique," and we present the test data and analysis.