Method and signal intelligence collection system that reduces output data overflow in real-time
Systems and methods of collecting intelligence provide an intelligence system having a front-end, a post-processing stage and a direction-finding stage. The front-end may generate digital data based on received RF signals, where the post-processing stage may process the digital data. The direction finding stage is able to prevent the post-processing stage from processing portions of the digital data that correspond to RF signals arriving from a direction other than a pre-determined direction. In one embodiment, the front end collects the RF signals in a plurality of parallel channels.
1 . An intelligence system comprising:
a front end to generate digital data based on received RF signals;
a post-processing stage to process the digital data; and
a direction finding stage to prevent the post-processing stage from processing portions of the digital data that correspond to RF signals arriving from a direction other than a predetermined direction.
2 . The intelligence system of claim 1 , wherein the front end is to collect the RF signals in a plurality of parallel channels.
3 . The intelligence system of claim 2 , wherein the direction finding stage is to identify an arrival direction for each of a plurality of frequency bins by determining at least one of a phase difference and a frequency difference between data in the plurality of channels.
4 . The intelligence system of claim 2 , wherein each channel includes:
an antenna to collect the received RF signals;
a wideband downconverter to generate analog intermediate frequency signals based on the received RF signals;
an analog to digital converter to generate the digital data based on the RF signals; and
a fast Fourier transform module to convert the digital data into frequency domain data.
5 . The intelligence system of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of channels includes a north-south channel, an east-west channel and a reference channel.
6 . The intelligence system of claim 1 , wherein the direction finding stage is to generate bin data that identifies frequency bins associated with RF signals arriving from the predetermined direction, the system further including a controller CPU to receive the bin data.
7 . The intelligence system of claim 1 , further including a user input to receive an indication of the predetermined direction.
8 . The intelligence system of claim 7 , wherein the user input includes a compass display in which the predetermined direction is to be identified by sweeping a sector of the compass.
9 . A method of collecting intelligence comprising:
generating digital data based on received RF signals; and
preventing portions of the digital data that correspond to RF signals arriving from a direction other than a predetermined direction from being processed.
10 . The method of claim 9 , further including collecting the RF signals in a plurality of parallel channels.
11 . The method of claim 10 , further including identifying an arrival direction for each of a plurality of frequency bins by determining at least one of a phase difference and a frequency difference between data in the plurality of parallel channels.
12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the generating includes, for each parallel channel:
collecting the received RF signals;
generating analog intermediate frequency signals based on the received RF signals; and
generating the digital data based on the RF signals, the method further including converting the digital data into frequency domain data for each parallel channel.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the preventing includes:
generating bin data that identifies frequency bins associated with RF signals arriving from the predetermined direction; and
receiving the bin data at a controller CPU.
14 . The method of claim 1 , further including receiving an indication of the predetermined direction at a user input.
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the receiving includes detecting a user sweeping of a sector of a compass display.