2/19/2017 ConstantFalseAlarmRate(CFAR)DetectionMATLAB&SimulinkExample

ConstantFalseAlarmRate(CFAR)Detection
Thisexampleintroducesconstantfalsealarmrate(CFAR)detectionand
showshowtouseCFARDetectorandCFARDetector2DinthePhasedArray OpenScript
SystemToolboxtoperformcellaveragingCFARdetection.

Introduction
Oneimportanttaskaradarsystemperformsistargetdetection.Thedetectionitselfisfairlystraightforward.Itcompares
thesignaltoathreshold.Therefore,therealworkondetectioniscomingupwithanappropriatethreshold.Ingeneral,the
thresholdisafunctionofboththeprobabilityofdetectionandtheprobabilityoffalsealarm.

Inmanyphasedarraysystems,becauseofthecostassociatedwithafalsedetection,itisdesirabletohaveadetection
thresholdthatnotonlymaximizestheprobabilityofdetectionbutalsokeepstheprobabilityoffalsealarmbelowapreset
level.

Thereisextensiveliteratureonhowtodeterminethedetectionthreshold.ReadersmightbeinterestedintheSignal
DetectioninWhiteGaussianNoiseandSignalDetectionUsingMultipleSamplesexamplesforsomewellknownresults.
However,alltheseclassicalresultsarebasedontheoreticalprobabilitiesandarelimitedtowhiteGaussiannoisewith
knownvariance(power).Inrealapplications,thenoiseisoftencoloredanditspowerisunknown.

CFARtechnologyaddressestheseissues.InCFAR,whenthedetectionisneededforagivencell,oftentermedasthe
cellundertest(CUT),thenoisepowerisestimatedfromneighboringcells.Thenthedetectionthreshold, ,isgivenby

where isthenoisepowerestimateand isascalingfactorcalledthethresholdfactor.

Fromtheequation,itisclearthatthethresholdadaptstothedata.Itcanbeshownthatwiththeappropriatethreshold
factor, ,theresultingprobabilityoffalsealarmcanbekeptataconstant,hencethenameCFAR.

CellAveragingCFARDetection
ThecellaveragingCFARdetectorisprobablythemostwidelyusedCFARdetector.Itisalsousedasabaseline
comparisonforotherCFARtechniques.InacellaveragingCFARdetector,noisesamplesareextractedfrombothleading
andlaggingcells(calledtrainingcells)aroundtheCUT.Thenoiseestimatecanbecomputedas[1]

where isthenumberoftrainingcellsand isthesampleineachtrainingcell.If happenstobetheoutputofa

squarelawdetector,then representstheestimatednoisepower.Ingeneral,thenumberofleadingandlaggingtraining
cellsarethesame.GuardcellsareplacedadjacenttotheCUT,bothandleadingandlaggingit.Thepurposeofthese
guardcellsistoavoidsignalcomponentsfromleakingintothetrainingcell,whichcouldadverselyaffectthenoise
estimate.

Thefollowingfigureshowstherelationamongthesecellsforthe1Dcase.

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2/19/2017 ConstantFalseAlarmRate(CFAR)DetectionMATLAB&SimulinkExample

WiththeabovecellaveragingCFARdetector,assumingthedatapassedintothedetectorisfromasinglepulse,i.e.,no
pulseintegrationinvolved,thethresholdfactorcanbewrittenas[1]

where isthedesiredfalsealarmrate.

CFARDetectionUsingAutomaticThresholdFactor
Intherestofthisexample,weshowhowtousePhasedArraySystemToolboxtoperformacellaveragingCFAR
detection.Forsimplicityandwithoutlosinganygenerality,westillassumethatthenoiseiswhiteGaussian.Thisenables
thecomparisonbetweentheCFARandclassicaldetectiontheory.

WecaninstantiateaCFARdetectorusingthefollowingcommand

cfar=phased.CFARDetector('NumTrainingCells',20,'NumGuardCells',2);

Inthisdetectorweuse20trainingcellsand2guardcellsintotal.Thismeansthatthereare10trainingcellsand1guard
celloneachsideoftheCUT.Asmentionedabove,ifweassumethatthesignalisfromasquarelawdetectorwithno
pulseintegration,thethresholdcanbecalculatedbasedonthenumberoftrainingcellsandthedesiredprobabilityoffalse
alarm.Assumingthedesiredfalsealarmrateis0.001,wecanconfiguretheCFARdetectorasfollowssothatthis
calculationcanbecarriedout.

exp_pfa=1e3;
cfar.ThresholdFactor='Auto';
cfar.ProbabilityFalseAlarm=exp_pfa;

TheconfiguredCFARdetectorisshownbelow.

cfar

cfar=

phased.CFARDetectorwithproperties:

Method:'CA'
NumGuardCells:2
NumTrainingCells:20
ThresholdFactor:'Auto'
ProbabilityFalseAlarm:1.0000e03
ThresholdOutputPort:false

Wenowsimulatetheinputdata.SincethefocusistoshowthattheCFARdetectorcankeepthefalsealarmrateundera
certainvalue,wejustsimulatethenoisesamplesinthosecells.Herearethesettings:

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2/19/2017 ConstantFalseAlarmRate(CFAR)DetectionMATLAB&SimulinkExample

Thedatasequenceis23sampleslong,andtheCUTiscell12.Thisleaves10trainingcellsand1guardcelloneach
sideoftheCUT.
Thefalsealarmrateiscalculatedusing100thousandMonteCarlotrials

rs=RandStream('mt19937ar','Seed',2010);
npower=db2pow(10);%Assume10dBSNRratio

Ntrials=1e5;
Ncells=23;
CUTIdx=12;

%Noisesamplesafterasquarelawdetector
rsamp=randn(rs,Ncells,Ntrials)+1i*randn(rs,Ncells,Ntrials);
x=abs(sqrt(npower/2)*rsamp).^2;

Toperformthedetection,passthedatathroughthedetector.Inthisexample,thereisonlyoneCUT,sotheoutputisa
logicalvectorcontainingthedetectionresultforallthetrials.Iftheresultistrue,itmeansthatatargetispresentinthe
correspondingtrial.Inourexample,alldetectionsarefalsealarmsbecauseweareonlypassinginnoise.Theresulting
falsealarmratecanthenbecalculatedbasedonthenumberoffalsealarmsandthenumberoftrials.

x_detected=cfar(x,CUTIdx);
act_pfa=sum(x_detected)/Ntrials

act_pfa=

9.4000e04

Theresultshowsthattheresultingprobabilityoffalsealarmisbelow0.001,justaswespecified.

CFARDetectionUsingCustomThresholdFactor
Asexplainedintheearlierpartofthisexample,thereareonlyafewcasesinwhichtheCFARdetectorcanautomatically
computetheappropriatethresholdfactor.Forexample,usingthepreviousscenario,ifweemploya10pulsesnoncoherent
integrationbeforethedatagoesintothedetector,theautomaticthresholdcannolongerprovidethedesiredfalsealarm
rate.

npower=db2pow(10);%Assume10dBSNRratio
xn=0;
form=1:10
rsamp=randn(rs,Ncells,Ntrials)+1i*randn(rs,Ncells,Ntrials);
xn=xn+abs(sqrt(npower/2)*rsamp).^2;%noncoherentintegration
end
x_detected=cfar(xn,CUTIdx);
act_pfa=sum(x_detected)/Ntrials

act_pfa=

Onemaybepuzzledwhywethinkaresultingfalsealarmrateof0isworsethanafalsealarmrateof0.001.Afterall,isn't
afalsealarmrateof0agreatthing?Theanswertothisquestionliesinthefactthatwhentheprobabilityoffalsealarmis
decreased,soistheprobabilityofdetection.Inthiscase,becausethetruefalsealarmrateisfarbelowtheallowedvalue,
thedetectionthresholdissettoohigh.Thesameprobabilityofdetectioncanbeachievedwithourdesiredprobabilityof
falsealarmatlowercostforexample,withlowertransmitterpower.

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Inmostcases,thethresholdfactorneedstobeestimatedbasedonthespecificenvironmentandsystemconfiguration.
WecanconfiguretheCFARdetectortouseacustomthresholdfactor,asshownbelow.

release(cfar);
cfar.ThresholdFactor='Custom';

Continuingwiththepulseintegrationexampleandusingempiricaldata,wefoundthatwecanuseacustomthreshold
factorof2.35toachievethedesiredfalsealarmrate.Usingthisthreshold,weseethattheresultingfalsealarmrate
matchestheexpectedvalue.

cfar.CustomThresholdFactor=2.35;
x_detected=cfar(xn,CUTIdx);
act_pfa=sum(x_detected)/Ntrials

act_pfa=

9.6000e04

CFARDetectionThreshold
ACFARdetectionoccurswhentheinputsignallevelinacellexceedsthethresholdlevel.Thethresholdlevelforeach
celldependsonthethresholdfactorandthenoisepowerinthatderivedfromtrainingcells.Tomaintainaconstantfalse
alarmrate,thedetectionthresholdwillincreaseordecreaseinproportiontothenoisepowerinthetrainingcells.Configure
theCFARdetectortooutputthethresholdusedforeachdetectionusingtheThresholdOutputPortproperty.Usean
automaticthresholdfactorand200trainingcells.

release(cfar);
cfar.ThresholdOutputPort=true;
cfar.ThresholdFactor='Auto';
cfar.NumTrainingCells=200;

Next,createasquarelawinputsignalwithincreasingnoisepower.

rs=RandStream('mt19937ar','Seed',2010);
Npoints=1e4;
rsamp=randn(rs,Npoints,1)+1i*randn(rs,Npoints,1);
ramp=linspace(1,10,Npoints)';
xRamp=abs(sqrt(npower*ramp./2).*rsamp).^2;

Computedetectionsandthresholdsforallcellsinthesignal.

[x_detected,th]=cfar(xRamp,1:length(xRamp));

Next,comparetheCFARthresholdtotheinputsignal.

plot(1:length(xRamp),xRamp,1:length(xRamp),th,...
find(x_detected),xRamp(x_detected),'o')
legend('Signal','Threshold','Detections','Location','Northwest')
xlabel('TimeIndex')
ylabel('Level')

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Here,thethresholdincreaseswiththenoisepowerofthesignaltomaintaintheconstantfalsealarmrate.Detections
occurwherethesignallevelexceedsthethreshold.

ComparisonBetweenCFARandClassicalNeymanPearsonDetector
Inthissection,wecomparetheperformanceofaCFARdetectorwiththeclassicaldetectiontheoryusingtheNeyman
Pearsonprinciple.Returningtothefirstexampleandassumingthetruenoisepowerisknown,thetheoreticalthreshold
canbecalculatedas

T_ideal=npower*db2pow(npwgnthresh(exp_pfa));

ThefalsealarmrateofthisclassicalNeymanPearsondetectorcanbecalculatedusingthistheoreticalthreshold.

act_Pfa_np=sum(x(CUTIdx,:)>T_ideal)/Ntrials

act_Pfa_np=

9.5000e04

Becauseweknowthenoisepower,classicaldetectiontheoryalsoproducesthedesiredfalsealarmrate.Thefalsealarm
rateachievedbytheCFARdetectorissimilar.

release(cfar);
cfar.ThresholdOutputPort=false;
cfar.NumTrainingCells=20;
x_detected=cfar(x,CUTIdx);
act_pfa=sum(x_detected)/Ntrials

act_pfa=

9.4000e04

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Next,assumethatbothdetectorsaredeployedtothefieldandthatthenoisepoweris1dBmorethanexpected.Inthis
case,ifweusethetheoreticalthreshold,theresultingprobabilityoffalsealarmisfourtimesmorethanwhatwedesire.

npower=db2pow(9);%Assume9dBSNRratio
rsamp=randn(rs,Ncells,Ntrials)+1i*randn(rs,Ncells,Ntrials);
x=abs(sqrt(npower/2)*rsamp).^2;
act_Pfa_np=sum(x(CUTIdx,:)>T_ideal)/Ntrials

act_Pfa_np=

0.0041

Onthecontrary,theCFARdetector'sperformanceisnotaffected.

x_detected=cfar(x,CUTIdx);
act_pfa=sum(x_detected)/Ntrials

act_pfa=

0.0011

Hence,theCFARdetectorisrobusttonoisepoweruncertaintyandbettersuitedtofieldapplications.

Finally,useaCFARdetectioninthepresenceofcolorednoise.Wefirstapplytheclassicaldetectionthresholdtothe
data.

npower=db2pow(10);
fcoeff=maxflat(10,'sym',0.2);
x=abs(sqrt(npower/2)*filter(fcoeff,1,rsamp)).^2;%colorednoise
act_Pfa_np=sum(x(CUTIdx,:)>T_ideal)/Ntrials

act_Pfa_np=

Notethattheresultingfalsealarmratecannotmeettherequirement.However,usingtheCFARdetectorwithacustom
thresholdfactor,wecanobtainthedesiredfalsealarmrate.

release(cfar);
cfar.ThresholdFactor='Custom';
cfar.CustomThresholdFactor=12.85;
x_detected=cfar(x,CUTIdx);
act_pfa=sum(x_detected)/Ntrials

act_pfa=

0.0010

CFARDetectionForRangeDopplerImages
Intheprevioussections,thenoiseestimatewascomputedfromtrainingcellsleadingandlaggingtheCUTinasingle
dimension.WecanalsoperformCFARdetectiononimages.Cellscorrespondtopixelsintheimages,andguardcellsand
trainingcellsareplacedinbandsaroundtheCUT.Thedetectionthresholdiscomputedfromcellsintherectangular
trainingbandaroundtheCUT.

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2/19/2017 ConstantFalseAlarmRate(CFAR)DetectionMATLAB&SimulinkExample

Inthefigureabove,theguardbandsizeis[22]andthetrainingbandsizeis[43].Thesizeindicesrefertothenumberof
cellsoneachsideoftheCUTintherowandcolumnsdimensions,respectively.Theguardbandsizecanalsobedefined
as2,sincethesizeisthesamealongrowandcolumndimensions.

Next,createatwodimensionalCFARdetector.Useaprobabilityoffalsealarmof1e5andspecifyaguardbandsizeof5
cellsandatrainingbandsizeof10cells.

cfar2D=phased.CFARDetector2D('GuardBandSize',5,'TrainingBandSize',10,...
'ProbabilityFalseAlarm',1e5);

Next,loadandplotarangedopplerimage.Theimageincludesreturnsfromtwostationarytargetsandonetargetmoving
awayfromtheradar.

[resp,rngGrid,dopGrid]=helperRangeDoppler;

UseCFARtosearchtherangedopplerspaceforobjects,andplotamapofthedetections.Searchfrom10to10kHzand
from1000to4000m.First,definethecellsundertestforthisregion.

[~,rangeIndx]=min(abs(rngGrid[10004000]));
[~,dopplerIndx]=min(abs(dopGrid[1e41e4]));
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[columnInds,rowInds]=meshgrid(dopplerIndx(1):dopplerIndx(2),...
rangeIndx(1):rangeIndx(2));
CUTIdx=[rowInds(:)columnInds(:)]';

Computeadetectionresultforeachcellundertest.Eachpixelinthesearchregionisacellinthisexample.Plotamapof
thedetectionresultsfortherangedopplerimage.

detections=cfar2D(resp,CUTIdx);
helperDetectionsMap(resp,rngGrid,dopGrid,rangeIndx,dopplerIndx,detections)

Thethreeobjectsaredetected.Adatacubeofrangedopplerimagesovertimecanlikewisebeprovidedastheinput
signaltocfar2D,anddetectionswillbecalculatedinasinglestep.

Summary
Inthisexample,wepresentedthebasicconceptsbehindCFARdetectors.Inparticular,weexploredhowtousethe
PhasedArraySystemToolboxtoperformcellaveragingCFARdetectiononsignalsandrangedopplerimages.The
comparisonbetweentheperformanceofferedbyacellaveragingCFARdetectorandadetectorequippedwiththe
theoreticallycalculatedthresholdshowsclearlythattheCFARdetectorismoresuitableforrealfieldapplications.

Reference
[1]MarkRichards,FundamentalsofRadarSignalProcessing,McGrawHill,2005

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