Suboptimal threshold detection in narrowband non-Gaussian noise

The Middleton Class A narrowband non-Gaussian noise model is considered. The performance of various simple suboptimum threshold detectors is examined and compared with the performance of the optimum detector. For example, it is shown that for most cases of interest the blanker has nearly optimal performance while the soft limiter and hard limiter have substantially less than optimal performance. Then, a new approximation of the locally optimum detector nonlinearity is developed using ideas from the theory of robust detection.