Automatically detects and characterizes pulse and Pulse Doppler signal energy in several hundred MHz of RF in real time; and simultaneously captures, retrieves, and isolates VWB Digital Intermediate Frequency (DIF) data at full ingest rate. Blade Server technology in conjunction with high performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch data distribution capabilities allow processing capabilities to be extended and system footprint to be reduced.

Each Lighthouse stream is composed of four components: acquisition (ACQ), pulse characterization (PDW), Pulse Doppler characterization (SDW), and DIF storage/retrieval.

The ACQ component performs digitization of analog input data, or reformatting of digital input data.

The PDW component analyzes several hundred MHz of RF in real time, and produces pulse descriptor words suitable for both automatic and manual follow-on processing. The SDW component detects CW signals in the input signal and produces stream descriptor words. Both provide multi-dimensional displays that allow the user to visualize large volumes of data in real-time. Zooming in on frequency or time is achieved by rubber-banding a region of interest. Zooming out to the previous region (remembered on a LIFO queue) is a single mouse click.

The DIF component captures, retrieves (full bandwidth or sub-band tuned), and isolates VWB Digital Intermediate Frequency (DIF) data at full ingest rate.

Lighthouse employs a Web user interface that provides "one stop shopping" for all control functions and status visualization.

Clicking on any rectangle above, the user can drill down from system to host to process to thread to log file.