A Detection Method for Interference Measurements in Partly Occupied Radio Frequency Bands

Electromagnetic interference can degrade radio receiver severely. For this purpose, there is a need to monitor and quantify interference incidents in radio frequency bands. With this goal, a detection method is developed that is intended to be used in a portable detection system for interference detection in frequency bands, where radio transmissions are sporadically appearing. The method is used to analyze the interference environment in the flight radio frequency band at 133.7 MHz. The principle of the method is to detect the radio transmissions for exclusion and then the remaining signal that consists of the interference environment can be analyzed. The measure impulsiveness ratio (IR) is used to discriminate between three different signal types: continuous wave (CW), additive white gaussian noise (AWGN) and impulsive signals. The method is evaluated on measurements in the flight radio frequency band and is shown to yield good performance.