Electronic Warfare Effect Aggregation

Overview
Electronic Attack Effect Coherency
  Effect Coherency Types
  Jamming Power Types
EW Effects Interaction Variables
  Jamming Effects Variable Structure
  Signal Effects Variable Structure
  Track Effects Variable Structure
  Message Effects Variable Structure
Aggregation Types

Overview

The Electronic Warfare (EW) effects in WSF include Electronic_Attack_Effects & Electronic_Protect_Effects that are applied during a transmitter-receiver or transmitter-target-receiver interaction as defined by this effects behavior in software and user modifiable inputs. During this interaction, the interaction data for the EW are applied by applying the unmitigated Electronic Attack (EA) effect then applying any mitigating Electronic Protect (EP) effects to the Electronic Attack effect. This process is repeated until all EA effects on all techniques are applied along with mitigating EP effects and aggregated into a single data set that is used to modify the interaction between the transmitter-receiver or transmitter-target-receiver. The aggregation of this EW effects is defined below for more insight into how WSF is applying these effects.

Electronic Attack Effect Coherency

Jamming power within an interaction calculation is calculated using general WSF Electromagnetic calculations. Each EA effect possesses one or more of the coherency type on the individual effect. As the effects are applied the types of effect coherencies encountered are summed and at the end of all the EW effects calculations the jamming power is divided into three types of jamming power (non-coherent, non-coherent-pulse, coherent) based on the EA effects coherencies encountered during the application of the effects. The coherency types available are defined in the table below along with the jamming power type it is summed into.

Effect Coherency Types

Effect Coherency Types

Description

Jamming Power Type

None

Coherency not specified for the given effect. Assumes Non-Coherent

Noise

Non-Coherent

Waveform is non-coherent with the transmit and/or expected receive waveform. Assumes continuous noise type waveform in most basic sense.

Noise

Non-Coherent Pulse

Waveform is pulsed and is non-coherent with the transmit and/or expected receive waveform. Assumes pulsed noise type waveform in most basic sense.

Pulse Noise

Coherent

Waveform is coherent with the transmit and/or expected receive waveform. Assumed to be closely representing the signal in most basic sense.

Coherent

Coherent-Pulse

Waveform is pulse and is coherent with the transmit and/or expected receive waveform. Assumed to be closely representing the pulsed signal in most basic sense

Coherent

Jamming Power Types

Jamming Power Type

Description

Mapped Effect Coherency Type(s)

Noise

Jamming induced power that acts like noise power to a receiver.

None & Non-Coherent

Pulsed-Noise

Pulse jamming power that acts like noise to a receiver.

Non-Coherent Pulse

Coherent

Coherent (continuous and/or pulsed)jamming power that acts like a signal to a receiver.

Coherent & Coherent Pulse

Within most interactions the signal-to-interference (S/I) ratio is calculated using the signal power divided by the noise power + clutter power + jammer power. The jammer power used for the interference is the noise + pulse (non-coherent) jammer power.

EW Effects Interaction Variables

The following EW effects variable structure is defined for each of the three types of jamming power as well as a separate signal, track and message effect structures. The following tables summarize these two structures and associated variables:

Jamming Effects Variable Structure

Power Effect Variable

Description

Aggregation Type(s)

Default/Undefined Value

Modifying Effect(s)

Blanking Factor

Jamming blanking factor (e.g., sidelobe blanker)

Multiplicative

1.0

WSF_SLB_EFFECT

Cancellation Factor

Jamming cancellation factor (e.g., sidelobe canceler)

Minimum

1.0

WSF_SLC_EFFECT, WSF_SLC_DEGRADE_EFFECT

Modulation Factor

Jamming processing/modulation type factor, not to physical jamming power factor.

Multiplicative

1.0

WSF_POWER_EFFECT

Jamming power Factor

Jamming physical power factor.

Multiplicative

1.0

WSF_POWER_EFFECT, WSF_COVER_PULSE_EFFECT

J/X Factor

Alternate jamming processing/modulation type that has a Jamming- to-Signal/Noise dependency.

Multiplicative

1.0

WSF_POWER_EFFECT

Target Protection Flag

Flag to specify whether or not jamming power will be allowed to interact with the receiver for a given target or not.

Undefined Boolean

undefined

electronic_warfare_effect

Pulse Suppression Factor

Pulse type jamming suppression factor.

Multiplicative

1.0

WSF_PULSE_SUPPRESS_EFFECT

Radius Factor

Factor that evaluates the position of the target wrt jammer location to apply a user input factor.

Multiplicative

1.0

WSF_RADIUS_EFFECT

Repeater Jamming Factor

Physical jamming power factor dependent upon repeater behavior defined.

Multiplicative

1.0

WSF_REPEATER_EFFECT

RPJ Factor

Random pulse jamming factor.

Multiplicative

1.0

WSF_RPJ_EFFECT

Signal Effects Variable Structure

Signal Effect Variable

Description

Aggregation Type(s)

Default/Undefined Value

Modifying Effect(s)

Signal Power Factor

Signal power factor.

Multiplicative

1.0

WSF_POWER_EFFECT

Receiver Noise Power Factor

Receiver noise power factor.

Multiplicative

1.0

WSF_POWER_EFFECT

Track Effects Variable Structure

Track Effect Variable

Description

Aggregation Type(s)

Default/Undefined Value

Modifying Effect(s)

Azimuth Error

Track azimuth error.

Maximum (EA) / Minimum (EP)

0.0

WSF_TRACK_EFFECT

Elevation Error

Track elevation error.

Maximum (EA) / Minimum (EP)

0.0

WSF_TRACK_EFFECT

Range Error

Track range error.

Maximum (EA) / Minimum (EP)

0.0

WSF_TRACK_EFFECT

Velocity Error

Track velocity error.

Maximum (EA) / Minimum (EP)

0.0

WSF_TRACK_EFFECT

Track Drop/Maintain Flag

Track drop/maintain flag

Undefined Boolean

undefined

WSF_TRACK_EFFECT, WSF_SLB_EFFECT (target blanking)

Message Effects Variable Structure

Track Effect Variable

Description

Aggregation Type(s)

Default/Undefined Value

Modifying Effect(s)

Bit Error Rate (BER)

BER for communications device to use.

Maximum (EA) / Minimum (EP)

0.0

WSF_COMM_EFFECT

Message Drop/Maintain Flag

Message drop/maintain flag

Undefined Boolean

undefined

WSF_COMM_EFFECT

Aggregation Types

The aggregation types given in the table below are used to aggregate (i.e., roll-up) the individual EW effect values into the interaction value to be used by the interaction to apply any EW related effects to the target detection, tracking process and/or message as applicable. All aggregation is done in standard units (i.e., multiplication is the same as addition in dB space.)

Aggregation Type

Description

Maximum

The maximum of the interaction value and current effect value being applied is taken and used as the interaction value.

Minimum

The minimum of the interaction value and current effect value being applied is taken and used as the interaction value.

Additive

The addition of the interaction value and current effect value being applied is used as the interaction value.

Multiplicative

The multiplied product of the interaction value and current effect value being applied is used as the interaction value.

Boolean

A true/false (i.e., two-state) flag that can be toggled based on the current value and logging of the effect.

Undefined Boolean

Similar to the Boolean aggregation type, except an undefined state along with the true/false (i.e., three-state) is available as a value. This type can be toggled from undefined (its most common default state) to true/false (i.e., defined) and toggled between the three states thereafter based on the current value and logic of the effect.

EW Interaction Flowchart

../../_images/ew_interactionflowchart.jpg