Performance analysis of non-coherent UWB receivers at different synchronization levels

Non-coherent ultra-wideband (UWB) receivers require no channel state information for demodulating the received signal. The primary non-coherent receiver in the UWB literature is the autocorrelation receiver, which autocorrelates the received signal at specific time lags, circumventing problems of template signal design and multipath energy combining. A unique advantage of the UWB autocorrelation receiver is its robustness to synchronization errors, which has not been explored yet to date. This paper investigates two major UWB schemes employing autocorrelation receivers: the transmitted reference (TR) scheme (R. Hoctor and H. Tomlinson, 2002) and the differential (DF) scheme (M. Ho et al., 2002). Performance is analyzed for TR and DF receivers at different synchronization accuracy levels, their robustness to synchronization errors is shown, and the existence of a tradeoff between performance and synchronization complexity for non-coherent UWB receivers is revealed. As a result of our analysis, comparisons of TR and DF schemes are also made in the presence of synchronization errors, which have not been addressed before. Simulations corroborate our findings.     

Pilot-Channel-Assisted Log-Likelihood-Ratio Selective Rake Combining for Low-Rate Ultra-Wideband Communications

For ultra-wideband (UWB) communications with signal energy dispersed by a large number of multipath components, the design of a Rake receiver that can provide a desirable output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) using only a moderate number of fingers becomes an important issue. In this paper, we propose a pilot-channel-assisted log-likelihood-ratio selective combining (PCA-LLR-SC) scheme for UWB Rake receivers to be used in long-range low-rate UWB communications envisioned by the IEEE 802.15.4a PHY specification. The pilot and data channels are constructed using quadrature sinusoidal bursts that have the same Gaussian envelope. The system parameters are optimized through jointly minimizing the channel estimation mean square error and maximizing the receiver output SNR. Extensive simulations confirm that the proposed PCA-LLR-SC scheme is capable of providing robust low-rate UWB communications in fast-fading multipath channels and in the presence of multi-user interference.     

On the performance of a rapid synchronization algorithm for IR‐UWB receivers

Because of the very low signal duty cycles, synchronization is the most critical issue in ultra wideband (UWB) impulse radio (IR) systems. Some effective synchronization schemes like a symbol‐differential (SD) IR‐UWB receiver have been proposed to synchronize received signals rapidly. Yet, SD IR‐UWB receiver is unsuitable for operation in multi‐user environment because of multiple access interference (MAI). By taking advantage of frame‐differential IR‐UWB receivers, we propose a parallel frame‐differential (PFD) IR‐UWB receiver to do so. Our proposed PFD IR‐UWB receiver manifests better immunity against message passing interface and MAI than the SD IR‐UWB. Based on this PFD IR‐UWB receiver, uncertain (search) regions are limited to one frame duration without any symbol‐level synchronization process. Performance of PFD and SD receivers are compared by computer simulations, showing that the proposed PFD receiver not only achieves significant bit error rate performance but also better and more robust results than the SD receiver in this literature. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance of a Binary PPM Ultra-Wideband Communication System with Direct Sequence Spreading for Multiple Access

In this paper, we present an analysis of the BER performance of an ultra-wideband (UWB) system with pulse position modulation (PPM) for data modulation and direct sequence (DS) spreading for multiple access over indoor lognormal fading channels. A rake receiver is used to combine a subset of the resolvable multipath components using the maximal ratio combining technique. Inter-path and multiple-access interferences are modeled and incorporated into the bit-error-rate expressions. The analytical and simulation results allow one to quantify many critical aspects of a DS-PPM UWB system such as the gain of the optimally spaced signaling scheme over the orthogonal signaling scheme, the potential error floor given a specific channel multipath delay spread and the number of interfering users, tolerance of the system to timing jitter, and impact of user codes.     

具有同步跟踪功能的单用户TH-SS PPM超宽带系统性能分析

目前超宽带系统均假设已知发射机与接收机之间准确的传播时延,收发双方完全同步,而任何系统收发双方必然存在同步误差.该文针对这一点,提出了一种具有同步跟踪功能的单用户TH-SS PPM超宽带系统,设计了同步跟踪方法,推导出了系统中存在同步误差时,解调器输出端信噪比计算公式和系统BER表达式.理论分析与仿真结果表明,系统BER与同步误差大小有很大关系,同步误差越小,系统BER越小.     

Timing with Dirty Templates for Low-Resolution Digital UWB Receivers

As a rapid timing synchronization technique for ultra-wideband (UWB) communications, the timing with dirty templates (TDT) technique effectively collects the multipath energy even when the channel is unknown [7]. In this paper, we investigate TDT algorithms for digital UWB receivers with low-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADC). Different from the original TDT in [7] for analog UWB receivers, our digital TDT synchronizers here can avoid the ultra-wideband analog delay elements which are difficult to implement at the IC level. Our analysis and simulations show that the (non)data-aided digital TDT algorithms remain operational even when the ADC resolution is very low.     

Low Complexity Rake Receivers in Ultra-Wideband Channels

One of the major issues for the design of ultra-wideband (UWB) receivers is the need to recover the signal energy dispersed over many multipath components, while keeping the receiver complexity low. To this aim we consider two schemes for reduced-complexity UWB Rake receivers, both of which combine a subset of the available resolved multipath components. The first method, called partial Rake (PRake), combines theirs/ arriving multipath components. The second is known as selective Rake (SRake) and combines the instantaneously strongest multipath components. We evaluate and compare the link performance of these Rake receivers in different UWB channels, whose models are based on extensive propagation measurements. We quantify the effect of the channel characteristics on the receiver performance, analyzing in particular the influence of small-scale fading statistics. We find that for dense channels the performance of the simpler PRake receiver is almost as good as that of the SRake receiver, even for a small number of fingers. In sparse channels, however, the SRake outperforms the PRake significantly. We also show that for a fixed transmitted energy there is an optimum transmission bandwidth     

UWB signal detection based on sequence optimization for dense multipath channels

In this letter, we propose a novel approach to UWB waveform design based on sequence optimization for the multipath transmission channel. The transmit waveform is made up of a train of delayed and scaled pulses, the amplitudes of which can be represented by a real-valued sequence. The waveform results in substantial improvement in energy capture (and thus performance) over the traditional rake receiver and the more recently proposed transmitted reference approaches with a simple receiver structure. The design exploits the rich multipath structure of UWB channels allowing improved energy capture.     

Performance of ultra-wideband communications with suboptimal receivers in multipath channels

The performance of a single-user ultra-wideband (UWB) communication system employing binary block-coded pulse-position modulation (PPM) and suboptimal receivers in multipath channels is considered. The receivers examined include a RAKE receiver with various diversity combining schemes and an autocorrelation receiver, which is used in conjunction with transmitted reference (TR) signaling. A general framework is provided for deriving the performance of these receivers in multipath channels corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). By employing previous measurements of indoor UWB channels, we obtain numerical results for several cases which illustrate the tradeoff between performance and receiver complexity.     

利用采样点选择法实现DS-CDMA中频接收机的码片同步

在ＤＳ－ＣＤＭＡ接收机中,正确解调的首要条件是实现本地扩频码与发送扩频码的码片同步。本文根据全数字接收机的实现方式和扩频解调的特点,提出了一种新颖的码片同步方式一采样点选择法。文中大致介绍了ＤＳ－ＣＤＭＡ全数字中频接收机的结构,重点讨论了利用采样点选择法实现码片同步的可行性,采样点选择法的性能。     

A Maximum Likelihood Fine Timing Estimation for Wireless OFDM Systems

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems are more sensitive to timing synchronization than single carrier systems. This paper presents a fine timing synchronization scheme which utilizes the channel impulse response (CIR) estimated from frequency-domain samples at OFDM receivers. A Maximum Likelihood Estimate (MLE) of timing offset is derived based on the probability distribution of the estimated CIR under time-varying multipath fading. The ML timing scheme is further developed for both integer precision and real-valued precision implementations. In the real-valued timing precision case, a delay locked loop (DLL) structure is devised as an effective way to implement the MLE. Both analysis and simulations of the proposed MLE showed significant improvement over existing schemes under time-varying multipath fading channels.      

An Ordered Successive Interference Cancellation Scheme in UWB MIMO Systems

In this letter, an ordered successive interference cancellation (OSIC) scheme is applied for multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) detection in ultra‐wideband (UWB) communication systems. The error rate expression of an OSIC receiver on a log‐normal multipath fading channel is theoretically derived in a closed form solution. Its bit error rate performance is analytically compared with that of a zero forcing receiver in the UWB MIMO detection scheme followed by RAKE combining.     

Rake‐Based Cellular Radar Receiver Design for Moving Target Detection in Multipath Channel

In this paper, we design a rake‐based cellular radar receiver (CRR) scheme to detect a moving target located in a multipath environment. The modules of Doppler filter banks, threshold level test, and target detection module are newly introduced into the conventional rake receiver so that it can function as a radar system. The proposed CRR tests the Doppler‐shift frequency and signal‐to‐noise ratio of the received signal against predefined threshold levels to determine detection and then calculates target velocities and ranges. The system performance is evaluated in terms of detection probability and the maximum detection range under a Nakagami‐n channel that reflects the multipath environment.     

Analysis of weighted non-coherent receiver for UWB-OOK signal in multipath channels

Non-coherent receivers are attractive for pulsed Ultra-WideBand （UWB） systems due to the implementation simplicity. However, they have to face the shortage of performance degradation. Several techniques were proposed to alleviate the noise effect and promote the receiver performance, among which is the weighted combining of multiple integration sub-intervals. In this paper, the performance of the weighted non-coherent receiver for UWB On-Off Keying （UWB-OOK） signal in multipath channels is analyzed, in terms of bit-error-rate. In addition, a closed-form expression of the approximately near-optimal weighting coefficient set is derived, and two simple weighting coefficient sets are proposed as well. Finally, the analytic results are verified via the computer simulations, which reveal obvious performance improvements to the conventional energy detector.     

基于多天线辅助估计的高精度UWB快速捕获算法研究

本文提出了一种基于多天线辅助估计的UWB(超宽带)快速捕获算法,利用UWB信号的循环平稳特性,将接收信号与它自身延迟一个信息位产生的模板相关,应用最大似然方法就可得到一个粗略的同步时间估计,在充分利用线性天线阵空间分集增益的情况下,这种估计相当准确。在此基础上继续进行精确同步,直到捕获任一符号位的第一帧第一个到达脉冲。文中采用流图法给出了本算法平均捕获时间的闭式解。理论分析和计算机模拟表明,该算法与同等硬件复杂程度和同等捕获精度的其他捕获方法相比可明显地缩短平均捕获时间。     

Data-aided efficient synchronization for UWB signals based on minimum average error probability

One of the biggest challenges in ultra-wideband （UWB） radio is the accurate timing acquisition for the receiver. In this article, we develop a novel data-aided synchronization algorithm for pulses amplitude modulation （PAM） UWB systems Pilot and information symbols are transmitted simultaneously by an orthogonal code division multiplexing （OCDM） scheme. In the receiver, an algorithm based on the minimum average error probability （MAEP） of coherent detector is applied to estimate the timing offset. The multipath interference （MI） problem for timing offset estimation is considered. The mean-square-error （MSE） and the bit-error-rate（BER） performances of our proposed scheme are simulated. The results show that our algorithm outperforms the algorithm based on the maximum correlator output （MCO） in multipath channels.     

Performance based on selective multipath reception

As wireless data rate requirements increase, multipath delay spread becomes an increasingly significant limitation on the performance of wireless systems. Techniques such as RAKE reception combat time dispersion by combining multipath components. Alternative implementations of RAKE receivers isolate the strongest multipath components and then shift each component to a common timing reference. The optimal timing reference in frequency-selective fading channels remains an open problem. This paper examines the impact pulse shaping and multipath delay spread on both signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and bit-error rate performance. The receiver being considered achieves symbol synchronization to the strongest multipath component. The performance when synchronization is achieved based on the first multipath component arrival is also found and used to illustrate performance differences. Multipath delay distributions used on the performance calculations are derived from indoor measurements. Pulse shapes considered in the analysis include root-raised cosine, raised cosine, and Gaussian filters. SNR losses are shown to range between 1-6 dB for bit rates of 10 Mb/s. Results show that synchronization of the receiver to the strongest multipath component gives a 1-3 dB advantage over synchronization to the first arriving multipath component.     

A novel self-pilot-based transmit-receive architecture for multipath-impaired UWB systems

In the last few years, ultra-wideband (UWB) systems became an appealing technology for wireless communication applications. Unfortunately, when the transmission channel is affected by intersymbol interference (ISI), system performance of UWB systems equipped with receivers based on conventional matched filters presents error-floor phenomena. Aimed by these considerations, in this letter, we present a novel transmit-receive scheme allowing blind channel estimation and minimum mean-square error linear channel equalization. Essentially, the proposed scheme exploits a very short duration of the UWB pulse for achieving reliable blind deconvolution of the received signal. A nice feature of the resulting system is that blind deconvolution of the received signal is achieved without power and throughput losses. Simulation results support the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, and show that it is able to gain about 8 dB over current UWB receivers based on matched filtering on several test channels impaired by ISI.     

Residual Synchronization Error Elimination in OFDM Baseband Receivers

It is well known that an OFDM receiver is vulnerable to synchronization errors. Despite fine estimations used in the initial acquisition, there are still residual synchronization errors. Though these errors are very small, they severely degrade the bit error rate (BER) performance. In this paper, we propose a residual error elimination scheme for the digital OFDM baseband receiver aiming to improve the overall BER performance. Three improvements on existing schemes are made: a pilot‐aided recursive algorithm for joint estimation of the residual carrier frequency and sampling time offsets; a delay‐based timing error correction technique, which smoothly adjusts the incoming data stream without resampling disturbance; and a decision‐directed channel gain update algorithm based on recursive least‐squares criterion, which offers faster convergence and smaller error than the least‐mean‐squares algorithms. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme works well in the multipath channel, and its performance is close to that of an OFDM system with perfect synchronization parameters.     

多径信道下TD-LTE系统中定时同步算法的研究

多径传播是无线信道所固有的特性,信道时延的存在将会导致符号间干扰(ISI),严重影响接收端信号的解调.本文重点研究了多径信道下TD-LTE系统中的定时同步模块,并对基于循环前缀(CP)的能量差分算法加以改进,联合主同步信号(PSS)精确估计定时同步位置.仿真结果表明,该算法在多径衰落信道下能获得较好的定时同步性能,即使在信道时延较大的情况下也能够稳定地工作.