Position-Aware Self-supervised Representation Learning for Cross-mode Radar Signal Recognition

Abstract

Radar signal recognition in open electromagnetic environments is challenging due to diverse operating modes and unseen radar types. Existing methods often overlook position relations in pulse sequences, limiting their ability to capture semantic dependencies over time. We propose RadarPos, a position-aware self-supervised framework that leverages pulse-level temporal dynamics without complex augmentations or masking, providing improved position relation modeling over contrastive learning or masked reconstruction. Using this framework, we evaluate cross-mode radar signal recognition under the long-tailed setting to assess adaptability and generalization. Experimental results demonstrate enhanced discriminability and robustness, highlighting practical applicability in real-world electromagnetic environments.