Automatic noise floor spectrum estimation in the presence of signals

Abstract

This paper describes a technique for automatically estimating the noise floor spectrum in the presence of signals. The technique works equally well for both flat and non-flat noise floor spectra. The technique is based on applying morphological binary image processing operators to a binary image of the received power spectrum. It is related to rank-order filters but is more computationally efficient. The performance is illustrated on the detection of radio signals.