Incorporation of false alarms in simulations of electronic receivers

• Authors: V. P. Sobczynski;C. J. Pearson
• Venue: WSC '73 Proceedings of the 6th conference on Winter simulation
• Year: 1973

A simple method for simulating false alarms in simulations of electronic receivers is developed. False alarms are an important part of electronic receivers and previously their generation was computationally complex because of their random nature and very small probability of occurrence. The approach derives the probability density function of the time between false alarms and shows how, for typical values of false alarm probability, the density function may be approximated by a discrete uniform density. Procedures are outlined for simulating false alarms both in the absence and presence of jamming. Also, a method is shown for representing the false alarm as having a finite width commensurate with the bandwidth of the receiver. A rapid computer algorithm for obtaining the amplitude of a false alarm is derived.