Low-cost, high-performance radar networks
First Claim
1. A real-time radar surveillance system comprising at least one land-based radar sensor apparatus adapted for detecting maneuvering targets and targets of small or low radar cross-section, said radar sensor apparatus including:
- a microwave radar device for substantially continuously monitoring a surveillance region for the presence of said targets by transmitting a radar signal and receiving radar echo signals from said targets when present and from surrounding sources of clutter;
a digitizer connected to said microwave radar device for receiving therefrom samples of said radar echo signals;
a computer programmed to implement a software-configurable radar processor generating low-bandwidth target data from said radar echo signals, said target data being taken from the group consisting of detection data and track data generated by said processor, said computer being connectable via a computer network to a radar data server including a database structured to organize and store said target data so that said target data is available for both immediate access as real-time target data and subsequent access as historical target-data,said processor being configured to send at least a portion of said target data over said network to said radar data server for insertion into and storage in said database, said database accumulating said target data over time resulting in a build-up and long-term storage of historical target data in said database contemporaneous with insertions of real-time target data, said database being accessible via said computer network or another network by at least one user application that receives, from said radar data server, data selectable by said user application from real-time target data and historical target data, said selectable real-time target data delivered to said user application immediately following and in sequence with insertions of said target data into said database enabling said user application to keep up in real-time, said user application providing a user interface for at least one user of the system.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A real-time radar surveillance system comprises at least one land-based non-coherent radar sensor apparatus adapted for detecting maneuvering targets and targets of small or low radar cross-section. The radar sensor apparatus includes a marine radar device, a digitizer connected to the marine radar device for receiving therefrom samples of radar video echo signals, and computer programmed to implement a software-configurable radar processor generating target data including detection data and track data, the computer being connectable to a computer network including a database. The processor is figured to transmit at least a portion of the target data over the network to the database, the database being accessible via the network by at least one user application that receives target data from the database, the user application providing a user interface for at least one user of the system.
-
Citations
45 Claims
-
1. A real-time radar surveillance system comprising at least one land-based radar sensor apparatus adapted for detecting maneuvering targets and targets of small or low radar cross-section, said radar sensor apparatus including:
-
a microwave radar device for substantially continuously monitoring a surveillance region for the presence of said targets by transmitting a radar signal and receiving radar echo signals from said targets when present and from surrounding sources of clutter; a digitizer connected to said microwave radar device for receiving therefrom samples of said radar echo signals; a computer programmed to implement a software-configurable radar processor generating low-bandwidth target data from said radar echo signals, said target data being taken from the group consisting of detection data and track data generated by said processor, said computer being connectable via a computer network to a radar data server including a database structured to organize and store said target data so that said target data is available for both immediate access as real-time target data and subsequent access as historical target-data, said processor being configured to send at least a portion of said target data over said network to said radar data server for insertion into and storage in said database, said database accumulating said target data over time resulting in a build-up and long-term storage of historical target data in said database contemporaneous with insertions of real-time target data, said database being accessible via said computer network or another network by at least one user application that receives, from said radar data server, data selectable by said user application from real-time target data and historical target data, said selectable real-time target data delivered to said user application immediately following and in sequence with insertions of said target data into said database enabling said user application to keep up in real-time, said user application providing a user interface for at least one user of the system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
-
-
30. A real-time radar surveillance method comprising:
-
operating at least one land-based radar sensor apparatus to substantially continuously monitor a surveillance region to detect maneuvering targets and targets of small or low radar cross-section, said radar sensor apparatus including a microwave radar device, the operating of said radar sensor apparatus including transmitting a radar signal and receiving radar echo signals from said targets when present and from surrounding sources of clutter, the operating of said radar sensor apparatus further including digitizing samples of radar echo signals generated by said microwave radar device; operating a software-configurable radar processor to generate low-bandwidth target data from said radar echo signals, said target data being taken from the group consisting of detection data and track data; and sending at least a portion of said target data over a computer network to a radar data server including a database structured to organize and store said target data so that said target data is available for both immediate access as real-time target data and subsequent access as historical target-data. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
-
-
37. A radar data method comprising:
-
operating a user application to communicate a request for radar data to a radar data server including a database structured to organize, insert and store radar target data so that said target data is available for both immediate access as real-time target data and subsequent access as historical target-data, further operating said user application to receive, from said radar data server, data selected by said radar data server in accordance with said request by said user application from real-time target data and historical target data in said database, additionally operating said user application to process the received target data, and further operating said user application to provide a user interface for at least one user, wherein selectable real-time target data received by said user application from said radar data server is received immediately following and in sequence with insertions of said target data into said database enabling said user application to keep up in real-time. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
-
-
45. A method in a real-time radar surveillance system comprising at least one land-based radar sensor apparatus adapted for detecting maneuvering targets and targets of small or low radar cross-section, said method comprising:
-
receiving low-bandwidth radar target data generated by at least one radar processor of said radar sensor apparatus from radar echo signals generated by a microwave radar device of said radar sensor apparatus, said target data being taken from the group consisting of detection data and track data generated by said processor; operating a radar data server including a database to organize, insert and store the received target data in said database so that said target data is available for both immediate access as real-time target data and subsequent access as historical target-data; additionally operating said radar data server to accumulate said target data over time resulting in a build-up and long-term storage of historical target data in said database contemporaneous with insertions of real-time target data; affording access to said database by at least one user application; and in response to a request from said user application, operating said radar data server to select, from real-time target data and historical target data in said database, and send to said user application data in accordance with said request by said user application, such operating of said radar data server including delivering selectable real-time target data to said user application immediately following and in sequence with insertions of said target data into said database enabling said user application to keep up in real-time.
-
Specification