Application for Letters Patent.

A method and apparatus for generating a track data set corresponding to a plurality of objects. A system employing the invention receives reports, e.g. radar echoes, from the plurality of objects over a time interval, partitions the time interval into subintervals or time bins, and sorts the returns into the time bins. In each bin, the reports are very close to one another in time, so that, in correlating the reports in each bin to the tracks, one can use the reports to form the necessary search tree, rather than using the tracks. Doing so increases efficiency if the number of reports per time interval significantly exceeds the number of tracks.