Hard-input-hard-output capacity analysis of UWB BPSK systems with timing errors

The hard-input-hard-output capacity of a binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) ultrawideband system is analyzed for both additive white Gaussian noise and multipath fading channels with timing errors. Unlike previous works that calculate the capacity with perfect synchronization and/or multiple-access interference only, our analysis considers timing errors with different distributions, as well as the interpath (IPI), interchip (ICI), and intersymbol (ISI) interferences, as in practical systems. The sensitivity of the channel capacity to the timing error is examined. The effects of pulse shape, the multiple-access technique, the number of users, and the number of chips are studied. It is found that time hopping is less sensitive to the pulse shape and that the timing error has higher capacity than direct sequence due to its low duty of cycle. Using these results, one can choose appropriate system parameters for different applications

Ultra Wideband Impulse Radio Systems with Multiple Pulse Types

In an ultra wideband (UWB) impulse radio (IR) system, a number of pulses, each transmitted in an interval called a "frame", is employed to represent one information symbol. Conventionally, a single type of UWB pulse is used in all frames of all users. In this paper, IR systems with multiple types of UWB pulses are considered, where different types of pulses can be used in different frames by different users. Both stored-reference (SR) and transmitted-reference (TR) systems are considered. First, the spectral properties of a multi-pulse IR system with polarity randomization is investigated. It is shown that the average power spectral density is the average of the spectral contents of different pulse shapes. Then, approximate closed-form expressions for the bit error probability of a multi-pulse SR-IR system are derived for RAKE receivers in asynchronous multiuser environments. The effects of both inter-frame interference (IFI) and multiple-access interference (MAI) are analyzed. The theoretical and simulation results indicate that SR-IR systems that are more robust against IFI and MAI than a "conventional" SR-IR system can be designed with multiple types of ultra-wideband pulses. Finally, extensions to multi-pulse TR-IR systems are briefly described.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications - Special Issue on Ultrawideband Wireless Communications: Theory and Application

A Survey of Air-to-Ground Propagation Channel Modeling for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), particularly for small UAVs, due to their affordable prices, ease of availability, and ease of operability. Existing and future applications of UAVs include remote surveillance and monitoring, relief operations, package delivery, and communication backhaul infrastructure. Additionally, UAVs are envisioned as an important component of 5G wireless technology and beyond. The unique application scenarios for UAVs necessitate accurate air-to-ground (AG) propagation channel models for designing and evaluating UAV communication links for control/non-payload as well as payload data transmissions. These AG propagation models have not been investigated in detail when compared to terrestrial propagation models. In this paper, a comprehensive survey is provided on available AG channel measurement campaigns, large and small scale fading channel models, their limitations, and future research directions for UAV communication scenarios

A General Framework for Analyzing, Characterizing, and Implementing Spectrally Modulated, Spectrally Encoded Signals

Fourth generation (4G) communications will support many capabilities while providing universal, high speed access. One potential enabler for these capabilities is software defined radio (SDR). When controlled by cognitive radio (CR) principles, the required waveform diversity is achieved via a synergistic union called CR-based SDR. Research is rapidly progressing in SDR hardware and software venues, but current CR-based SDR research lacks the theoretical foundation and analytic framework to permit efficient implementation. This limitation is addressed here by introducing a general framework for analyzing, characterizing, and implementing spectrally modulated, spectrally encoded (SMSE) signals within CR-based SDR architectures. Given orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a 4G candidate signal, OFDM-based signals are collectively classified as SMSE since modulation and encoding are spectrally applied. The proposed framework provides analytic commonality and unification of SMSE signals. Applicability is first shown for candidate 4G signals, and resultant analytic expressions agree with published results. Implementability is then demonstrated in multiple coexistence scenarios via modeling and simulation to reinforce practical utility

Positioning and Sensing System Based on Impulse Radio Ultra-Wideband Technology

Impulse Radio Ultra-Wideband (IR-UWB) is a wireless carrier communication technology using nanosecond non-sinusoidal narrow pulses to transmit data. Therefore, the IR-UWB signal has a high resolution in the time domain and is suitable for high-precision positioning or sensing systems in IIoT scenarios. This thesis designs and implements a high-precision positioning system and a contactless sensing system based on the high temporal resolution characteristics of IR-UWB technology. The feasibility of the two applications in the IIoT is evaluated, which provides a reference for human-machine-thing positioning and human-machine interaction sensing technology in large smart factories. By analyzing the commonly used positioning algorithms in IR-UWB systems, this thesis designs an IRUWB relative positioning system based on the time of flight algorithm. The system uses the IR-UWB transceiver modules to obtain the distance data and calculates the relative position between the two individuals through the proposed relative positioning algorithm. An improved algorithm is proposed to simplify the system hardware, reducing the three serial port modules used in the positioning system to one. Based on the time of flight algorithm, this thesis also implements a contactless gesture sensing system with IR-UWB. The IR-UWB signal is sparsified by downsampling, and then the feature information of the signal is obtained by level-crossing sampling. Finally, a spiking neural network is used as the recognition algorithm to classify hand gestures

Ultra-wideband technology for short-range wireless communication

The ultra-wideband (UWB) radio core idea is to open large amounts of spectrum to a variety of users with little mutual interference between them. While ultra-wideband is being championed by several commercial companies, this technology has not followed the conventional path where commercial interest is preceded by years of academic research. This work attempts to fill in some of the gap by studying fundamental properties of communications with impulse-based radio UWB signals. We study jam resistance and capacity of UWB. Jam resistance is analyzed for binary pulse position modulation (PPM) with the interference being modeled as correlated Gaussian. Closed-form expressions are provided for the jam resistance of a PPM UWB system utilizing rectangular pulses. Simple approximations are obtained for special cases (narrowband interference). Such analysis is extended to other practical UWB waveforms such as Gaussian and Rayleigh monocycles. It is shown that under some conditions, the UWB jam resistance is superior to that of direct sequence spread spectrum (DS-SS). In the second part of this work, we study the capacity of the single-user UWB communication systems utilizing M-ary PPM and bi-phase as well as on-off keying modulation scheme over additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and multipath channels. Starting from the known capacity of M-ary modulated signals, the computation of UWB capacity over the AWGN channel takes into account UWB specific constraints. The constraints are the power spectrum density limitation under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Part 15 rules and the spreading ratio required to achieve a specified jam resistance level. UWB capacity over AWGN channel is expressed as a function of spreading ratio and communication range. Trade-offs between capacity and range of communications and between capacity and spreading ratio are explored. We extend the study of capacity of UWB communications to the multipath channel using the modified S-V model proposed by the IEEE 802.15.3a task group. The complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) of the capacities, subject to the FCC power spectral density (PSD) limitation, are obtained for the all Rake (ARake) and selective Rake (SRake) receivers. In both of the cases, maximum ratio combining is employed. Finally, the capacity of multiple-access UWB communications is studied over the AWGN channel. Under certain assumptions, the multiple-access noise component at the receiver is modeled as Gaussian. An expression for the UWB capacity of the multiple-access channel is developed as a function of number of users

Combination of OFDM and CDMA for high data rate UWB

For Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) systems, resource allocation between several users within a piconet and the coexistence of several piconets are very important points to take into consideration for the optimization of high data rate Ultra Wide Band (UWB) systems. To improve the performance of the Multi-Band OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) solution proposed by the Multi-Band OFDM Alliance (MBOA), the addition of a spreading component in the frequency domain is a good solution since it makes resource allocation easier and also offers better robustness against channel frequency selectivity and narrowband interference. The Spread Spectrum - Multi-Carrier - Multiple Access (SS-MC-MA) system proposed in this article offers not only the advantages of Multi-Carrier - Coded Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) brought by frequency spreading, but also a more effective dynamic resource allocation in a multi-user and multi-piconet context. These improvements are obtained without increasing the complexity of the radio-frequency part compared to the classical MBOA solution