Non-cooperative signal detection in alpha stable noise via Kolmogorov-Smirnov test

The symmetric alpha stable distribution is a good model for impulsive interference and has gained much attention. However, most of the traditional detectors are based on the assumption that the transmission signal is known to the receivers. In non-cooperative applications such as battlefield communications, the knowledge of the intercepted signal is hardly available. How to detect a signal without a prior knowledge remains a challenge problem. To solve the problem, a non-cooperative detector based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test is proposed. Simulation results show that the new detector can compare with the Cauchy locally optimal detector and outperforms some other classical detectors when the characteristic exponent (a) is small. The detector has low computational complexity and does not require detail knowledge of the transmission signal as well as that of the noise statistic, which makes it a useful non-cooperative detection method in symmetric alpha stable noise.