Automatic reconstruction of radar pulse repetition pattern based on model learning

Compared with the traditional pulse repetition interval (PRI) parameters, PRI pattern can describe the temporal characteristics of radar more completely, and the method based on PRI pattern is more suitable for tasks of deinterleaving and identification. Therefore, effective reconstruction of PRI pattern is an important task in radar signal processing. However, previous PRI pattern reconstruction methods either set too many subjective parameters or have high requirements for the number of pulses, making it not very practical for analyzing actual radar signals. In this paper, the temporal rule of pulse train is modeled from the perspective of radar timing state switching. Then the pulses of different timing states in the pulse train are clustered based on state merging algorithms in model learning. The transitions between different timing states are established based on the pulse sets obtained by clustering. Finally, the PRI pattern of radar is reconstructed after processing interferential pulses and missing pulses. Based on the above method, this paper further proposes a method to reconstruct PRI patterns of all radars in interleaved pulse trains. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed PRI pattern reconstruction method. •PRI pattern reconstruction framework based on model learning.•Pulse clustering algorithm based on state merging.•Radar emitter division method for interleaved pulse trains.•Better adaptability to the data noises, PRI pattern order and small pulse number.