A comparison of pulse compression techniques for ranging applications

Abstract

In this chapter, a comparison of Golay code based pulse compression (GCPC) technique with the Neuro-Fuzzy based pulse compression (NFPC) technique is demonstrated for ranging systems. Both of these techniques are used for the suppression of range side lobes that appear during the pulse compression process of the received echo pulse at the receiver for target(s) detection. Golay code is a pair of complementary codes and has an inherent property of zero side lobes when the two auto-correlation results of the complementary code pair are added. On the other side, neural network based pulse compression techniques are also developed to reduce the range side lobes. Both the techniques are different in nature but they share the common objective of range side lobe suppression in target detection. The differentiation parameters chosen for the comparison of GCPC and NFPC techniques include the computational complexity, range side lobe suppression levels, noise rejection capability, Doppler tolerance capability, range resolution capability as well as the training and convergence requirements of these pulse compression techniques. All these comparison criteria are found to determine the overall performance measures of the pulse compression techniques for ranging applications especially in case of detection and ranging of multiple closely spaced and weak targets. This comparison may be useful for a system designer to select a particular type of pulse compression technique for a specific ranging application. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.