RECEIVER AND METHOD FOR BLIND ADAPTIVE THRESHOLDING USING NOISE ESTIMATOR

A receiver estimates noise power and establishes a false alarm detector threshold. The receiver includes an antenna array having a plurality of antenna subarrays on which multiple communications signals are received over a communications channel. At least one channelizer splits the communications signal into multiple frequency sub-bands per subarray, each having a channel output. At least one noise estimator and detector is operative at the channel outputs for estimating noise power and setting a detector threshold used in detecting false alarms by forming a temporal covariance matrix on each channel output, performing an eigenvalue decomposition on the temporal covariance matrix, selecting candidate channels using the eigenvalue spread per channel, computing a noise power estimate from the candidate channels and setting a detector threshold for detecting false alarms based on the noise power estimate.