THOMAS A. WETTERGREN, Senior Member, IEEE
Naval Undersea Warfare Center
We consider the search for moving targets over large areas using a network of fixed sensor nodes. The concept of track-before-detect is defined and used to both manage the information between sensors and reduce the likelihood of false searches. We develop expressions for the probability of search success and the probability of reporting false search in this system concept. Using these as performance measures, we examine how the track-before-detect search strategy impacts design choices in these networks, by showing which parameter changes in the sensor design have the greatest impact on improving the desired performance goals.
Manuscript received April 10, 2006; revised October 4, 2006;
released for publication January 19, 2007.
IEEE Log No. T-AES/44/1/920403
Refereeing of this contribution was handled by S. Coraluppi.
This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research Code
321MS and by the In-House Laboratory Independent Research
Program of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.
Author's address: Naval Undersea Warfare Center, 1176 Howell St.,
Newport, RI 02841, E-mail: (t.a.wettergren@ieee.org).
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