Performance assessment of sonar-system networks for anti-submarine warfare

This paper describes a study of the effect of networking active sonars on tracking performance in a scenario with explicit inclusion of false detections, using two false-detection models and detection-probability curves with two levels of tailing. We compare the tracking performance when sonars share detections (centralized tracking) with the performance when sonars share tracks (distributed tracking). Provided that the sonar layout and detection probabilities are such that multiple sonars have a reasonable probability of obtaining detections from a target, we show that centralized tracking decreases the time to confirm a track on a target and improves the continuity of the target track, but increases the false track rate. Results for other metrics are also presented.