PERFORMANCE OF DISTRIBUTED DETECTION NETWORKS.
In a distributed detection system the local processors compare the likelihood ratio of the incoming observation vector to a threshold that depends on the decisions received from other local processors. The optimal thresholds and the overall network performance are expressed using the local processor performance. Several receiver operating characteristics (ROC) are chosen from the conic family, and the performance of the networks are compared. For serial and fusion networks with three processors, no difference occurs when the local conic ROC has infinite initial slope and terminal slope greater than or equal to 0. 5. The quantization of one observation vector into a decision also causes no performance loss. When the local conic ROC has terminal slope less than 0. 5, the fusion network with three processors has the best performance.