Threshold estimation for UWB single pulse radar

Ultra wideband (UWB) impulse radio technology has been widely researched for sensor applications and communication systems. In the radar system, detection performance is determined by a threshold. However, setting a proper threshold for maximizing detection performance is challenging without knowledge of exact noise power. In this paper, we propose novel algorithms that estimate noise power by adopting a divide-and-conquer algorithm to set a threshold for maximizing detection performance under the Neyman-Pearson criterion for UWB radar signals. The proposed algorithm can be easily applied to existing detectors. Simulation results show that the performance of detection with our proposed algorithm is closely matches to statistical model bounds, and required signal-to-noise ratio for perfect detection is less than constant false alarm rate detectors.