2/19/2017 DetectorPerformanceAnalysisUsingROCCurvesMATLAB&SimulinkExample

DetectorPerformanceAnalysisUsingROCCurves
Thisexampleshowshowyoucanassesstheperformanceofbothcoherent
andnoncoherentsystemsusingreceiveroperatingcharacteristic(ROC) OpenScript
curves.Itassumesthedetectoroperatesinanadditivecomplexwhite
Gaussiannoiseenvironment.

ROCcurvesareoftenusedtoassesstheperformanceofaradarorsonardetector.ROCcurvesareplotsofthe
probabilityofdetection(Pd)vs.theprobabilityoffalsealarm(Pfa)foragivensignaltonoiseratio(SNR).

Introduction
Theprobabilityofdetection(Pd)istheprobabilityofsayingthat"1"istruegiventhatevent"1"occurred.Theprobabilityof
falsealarm(Pfa)istheprobabilityofsayingthat"1"istruegiventhatthe"0"eventoccurred.Inapplicationssuchas
sonarandradar,the"1"eventindicatesthatatargetispresent,andthe"0"eventindicatesthatatargetisnotpresent.

Adetector'sperformanceismeasuredbyitsabilitytoachieveacertainprobabilityofdetectionandprobabilityoffalse
alarmforagivenSNR.Examiningadetector'sROCcurvesprovidesinsightintoitsperformance.Wecanusetherocsnr
functiontocalculateandplotROCcurves.

SinglePulseDetection
GivenanSNRvalue,youcancalculatethePdandPfavaluesthatalinearorsquarelawdetectorcanachieveusinga
singlepulse.AssumingwehaveanSNRvalueof8dBandourrequirementsdictateaPfavalueofatmost1%,what
valueofPdcanthedetectorachieve?WecanusetherocsnrfunctiontocalculatethePdandPfavaluesandthen
determinewhatvalueofPdcorrespondstoPfa=0.01.Notethatbydefaulttherocsnrfunctionassumescoherent
detection.

[Pd,Pfa]=rocsnr(8);

idx=find(Pfa==0.01);%findindexforPfa=0.01

UsingtheindexdeterminedabovewecanfindthePdvaluethatcorrespondstoPfa=0.01.

Pd(idx)

ans=

0.8899

OnefeatureoftherocsnrfunctionisthatyoucanspecifyavectorofSNRvaluesandrocsnrcalculatestheROCcurvefor
eachoftheseSNRvalues.InsteadofindividuallycalculatingPdandPfavaluesforagivenSNR,wecanviewtheresults
inaplotofROCcurves.TherocsnrfunctionplotstheROCcurvesbydefaultifnooutputargumentsarespecified.Calling
therocsnrfunctionwithaninputvectoroffourSNRvaluesandnooutputargumentsproducesaplotoftheROCcurves.

SNRvals=[2489.4];
rocsnr(SNRvals);

https://www.mathworks.com/help/phased/examples/detectorperformanceanalysisusingroccurves.html 1/7
2/19/2017 DetectorPerformanceAnalysisUsingROCCurvesMATLAB&SimulinkExample

Intheplotwecanselectthedatacursorbuttoninthetoolbar(orintheToolsmenu)andthenselecttheSNR=8dBcurve
atthepointwherePd=0.9toverifythatPfaisapproximately0.01.

MultiplePulseDetection
Onewaytoimproveadetector'sperformanceistoaverageoverseveralpulses.Thisisparticularlyusefulincaseswhere
thesignalofinterestisknownandoccursinadditivecomplexwhitenoise.Althoughthisstillappliestobothlinearand
squarelawdetectors,theresultforsquarelawdetectorscouldbeoffbyabout0.2dB.Let'scontinueourexampleby
assuminganSNRof8dBandaveragingovertwopulses.

rocsnr(8,'NumPulses',2);

https://www.mathworks.com/help/phased/examples/detectorperformanceanalysisusingroccurves.html 2/7
2/19/2017 DetectorPerformanceAnalysisUsingROCCurvesMATLAB&SimulinkExample

Byinspectingtheplotwecanseethataveragingovertwopulsesresultedinahigherprobabilityofdetectionforagiven
falsealarmrate.WithanSNRof8dBandaveragingovertwopulses,youcanconstraintheprobabilityoffalsealarmto
beatmost0.0001andachieveaprobabilityofdetectionof0.9.Recallthatforasinglepulse,wehadtoallowthe
probabilityoffalsealarmtobeasmuchas1%toachievethesameprobabilityofdetection.

NoncoherentDetector
Tothispoint,wehaveassumedweweredealingwithaknownsignalincomplexwhiteGaussiannoise.Therocsnr
functionbydefaultassumesacoherentdetector.Toanalyzetheperformanceofadetectorforthecasewherethesignal
isknownexceptforthephase,youcanspecifyanoncoherentdetector.UsingthesameSNRvaluesasbefore,let's
analyzetheperformanceofanoncoherentdetector.

rocsnr(SNRvals,'SignalType','NonfluctuatingNoncoherent');

https://www.mathworks.com/help/phased/examples/detectorperformanceanalysisusingroccurves.html 3/7
2/19/2017 DetectorPerformanceAnalysisUsingROCCurvesMATLAB&SimulinkExample

FocusontheROCcurvecorrespondingtoanSNRof8dB.Byinspectingthegraphwiththedatacursor,youcanseethat
toachieveaprobabilityofdetectionof0.9,youmusttolerateafalsealarmprobabilityofupto0.05.Withoutusingphase
information,weneedahigherSNRtoachievethesamePdforagivenPfa.Fornoncoherentlineardetectors,wecanuse
Albersheim'sequationtodeterminewhatvalueofSNRwillachieveourdesiredPdandPfa.

SNR_valdB=albersheim(0.9,.01)%Pd=0.9andPfa=0.01

SNR_valdB=

9.5027

PlottingtheROCcurvefortheSNRvalueapproximatedbyAlbersheim'sequation,wecanseethatthedetectorwill
achievePd=0.9andPfa=0.01.NotethattheAlbersheim'stechniqueappliesonlytononcoherentdetectors.

rocsnr(SNR_valdB,'SignalType','NonfluctuatingNoncoherent');

https://www.mathworks.com/help/phased/examples/detectorperformanceanalysisusingroccurves.html 4/7
2/19/2017 DetectorPerformanceAnalysisUsingROCCurvesMATLAB&SimulinkExample

DetectionofFluctuatingTargets
Allthediscussionsaboveassumethatthetargetisnonfluctuating,whichmeansthatthetarget'sstatistical
characteristicsdonotchangeovertime.However,inrealscenarios,targetscanaccelerateanddecelerateaswellasroll
andpitch.Thesefactorscausethetarget'sradarcrosssection(RCS)tovaryovertime.Asetofstatisticalmodelscalled
SwerlingmodelsareoftenusedtodescribetherandomvariationintargetRCS.

TherearefourSwerlingmodels,namelySwerling14.ThenonfluctuatingtargetisoftentermedeitherSwerling0or
Swerling5.EachSwerlingmodeldescribeshowatarget'sRCSvariesovertimeandtheprobabilitydistributionofthe
variation.

BecausethetargetRCSisvarying,theROCcurvesforfluctuatingtargetsarenotthesameasthenonfluctuatingones.In
addition,becauseSwerlingtargetsaddrandomphaseintothereceivedsignal,itishardertouseacoherentdetectorfora
Swerlingtarget.Therefore,noncoherentdetectiontechniquesareoftenusedforSwerlingtargets.

LetusnowcomparetheROCcurvesforanonfluctuatingtargetandaSwerling1target.Inparticular,wewanttoexplore
whattheSNRrequirementsareforbothsituationsifwewanttoachievethesamePdandPfa.Forsuchacomparison,it
isofteneasytoplottheROCcurveasPdagainstSNRwithvaryingPfa.WecanusetherocpfafunctiontoplotROC
curveinthisform.

Letusassumethatwearedoingnoncoherentdetectionwith10integratedpulses,withthedesiredPfabeingatmost1e8.
WefirstplottheROCcurveforanonfluctuatingtarget.

rocpfa(1e8,'NumPulses',10,'SignalType','NonfluctuatingNoncoherent')

https://www.mathworks.com/help/phased/examples/detectorperformanceanalysisusingroccurves.html 5/7
2/19/2017 DetectorPerformanceAnalysisUsingROCCurvesMATLAB&SimulinkExample

WethenplottheROCcurveforaSwerling1targetforcomparison.

rocpfa(1e8,'NumPulses',10,'SignalType','Swerling1')

Fromthefigures,wecanseethatforaPdof0.9,werequireanSNRofabout6dBifthetargetisnonfluctuating.
However,ifthetargetisaSwerlingcase1model,therequiredSNRjumpstomorethan14dB,an8dBdifference.This
willgreatlyimpactthedesignofthesystem.
https://www.mathworks.com/help/phased/examples/detectorperformanceanalysisusingroccurves.html 6/7
2/19/2017 DetectorPerformanceAnalysisUsingROCCurvesMATLAB&SimulinkExample

Asinthecaseofnonfluctuatingtargets,wehaveapproximationequationstohelpdeterminetherequiredSNRwithout
havingtoplotallthecurves.TheequationusedforfluctuatingtargetsisShnidman'sequation.Forthescenarioweusedto
plottheROCcurves,theSNRrequirementscanbederivedusingtheshnidmanfunction.

snr_sw1_db=shnidman(0.9,1e8,10,1)%Pd=0.9,Pfa=1e8,10pulses,
%Swerlingcase1

snr_sw1_db=

14.7131

ThecalculatedSNRrequirementmatchesthevaluederivedfromthecurve.

Summary
ROCcurvesareusefulforanalyzingdetectorperformance,bothforcoherentandnoncoherentsystems.Weusedthe
rocsnrfunctiontoanalyzetheeffectivenessofalineardetectorforvariousSNRvalues.Wealsoreviewedthe
improvementindetectorperformanceachievedbyaveragingmultiplesamples.Lastlyweshowedhowwecanusethe
rocsnrandrocpfafunctionstoanalyzedetectorperformancewhenusinganoncoherentdetectorforbothnonfluctuating
andfluctuatingtargets.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/phased/examples/detectorperformanceanalysisusingroccurves.html 7/7