A Clustering Approach for Jamming Environment Classification

A hierarchical clustering architecture is proposed to deal with the problem of jamming environment classification when multiple noise-like jammers are possibly present. Assuming the availability of clutter-free multichannel data, a two-level hierarchical procedure is devised to unveil the presence of clusters containing range cells experiencing the same jamming interference as the cell under test. Level 1 relies on the use of covariance smoothing and model-order selection rules to make inference on the number of jamming signals affecting each range bin within the radar range swath. Level 2 allows to discriminate among possible different interfering scenarios characterized by the same number of jammers via an unsupervised learning clustering fed by a suitable feature set. At the analysis stage, the performance of the devised architecture is investigated over simulated and measured data (via software-defined radio devices) to highlight the benefits of the approach.