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

Ultra-wideband systems exploiting orthonormal waveforms

textElectrical and Computer Engineerin

Characterization of Ultra Wideband Multiple Access Performance Using Time Hopped-Biorthogonal Pulse Position Modulation

The FCC\u27s release of its UWB First Report and Order in April 2002 spawned renewed interest in impulse signaling research. This work combines Time Hopped (TH) multiple access coding with 4-ary UWB Biorthogonal Pulse Position Modulation (TH-BPPM). Multiple access performance is evaluated in a multipath environment for both synchronous and asynchronous networks. Fast time hopping is implemented by replicating and hopping each TH-BPPM symbol NH times. Bit error expressions are derived for biorthogonal TH-BPPM signaling and results compared with previous orthogonal TH-PPM work. Without fast time hopping (NH = 1), the biorthogonal TH-BPPM technique provided gains equivalent to Gray-coded QPSK; improved BER at a given Eb/No and an effective doubling of the data rate. A synchronized network containing up to NT = 15 transmitters yields an average BER improvement (relative to an asynchronous network) of approximately -6.30 dB with orthogonal TH-PPM and approximately 5.9 dB with biorthogonal TH-BPPM. Simulation results indicate that doubling the number of multipath replications (NMP) reduces BER by approximately 3.6 dB. Network performance degrades as NT and NMP increase and synchronized network advantages apparent in the NMP = 0 case diminish with multipath interference present. With fast time hopping (NH \u3e 1) improves BER performance whenever NMP \u3c NH while reducing effective data rate by 1/NH. Compared to the NH = 1 synchronized network, TH-BPPM modulation using NH = 10 provides approximately 5.9 dB improvement at NMP = 0 and approximately 3.6 dB improvement at NMP = 5. At NMP = 10, the BER for the hopped and NH = 1 cases are not statistically different; with NH = 10 hops, BER improvement varies from approximately 0.57 to 0.14 dB (minimal variation between synchronous and asynchronous network performance)

Ultra Wide Band Multiple Access Performance Using TH-PPM and DS-BPSK Modulations

The increasing demand for portable, high data rate communications has focused much attention on wireless technology. Ultra Wide Band (UWB) waveforms have the ability to deliver megabits of information while maintaining low average power consumption. In accordance with recent FCC ruling, UWB systems are now allowed to operate in the unlicensed spectrum of 3.1 to 10.6 GHz, motivating renewed interest in the forty year old concept of impulse radio. Gaussian monocycles produce UWB waveforms occupying large bandwidths with multiple access (MA) capability enabled by spread spectrum techniques. Time Hopping (TH) and Direct Sequence (DS) modulations are considered here for UWB MA applications. This work extends Gold coding results and characterizes UWB performance using Simulated Annealing (SA) and Random Integer (RI) codes for TH and DS UWB applications. TH-PPM and DS-BPSK performance is evaluated using simulated probability of bit error P(sub b) under MA interference (MAI), multipath interference (MPI), and narrow band interference (NBI) conditions for synchronous and asynchronous networks

Comparison of direct and heterodyne detection optical intersatellite communication links

The performance of direct and heterodyne detection optical intersatellite communication links are evaluated and compared. It is shown that the performance of optical links is very sensitive to the pointing and tracking errors at the transmitter and receiver. In the presence of random pointing and tracking errors, optimal antenna gains exist that will minimize the required transmitter power. In addition to limiting the antenna gains, random pointing and tracking errors also impose a power penalty in the link budget. This power penalty is between 1.6 to 3 dB for a direct detection QPPM link, and 3 to 5 dB for a heterodyne QFSK system. For the heterodyne systems, the carrier phase noise presents another major factor of performance degradation that must be considered. In contrast, the loss due to synchronization error is small. The link budgets for direct and heterodyne detection systems are evaluated. It is shown that, for systems with large pointing and tracking errors, the link budget is dominated by the spatial tracking error, and the direct detection system shows a superior performance because it is less sensitive to the spatial tracking error. On the other hand, for systems with small pointing and tracking jitters, the antenna gains are in general limited by the launch cost, and suboptimal antenna gains are often used in practice. In which case, the heterodyne system has a slightly higher power margin because of higher receiver sensitivity

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

Performance of Bit Error Rate and Power Spectral Density of Ultra Wideband with Time Hopping Sequences.

This thesis focuses on several modulation methods for an ultra wideband (UWB) signal. These methods are pulse position modulation (PPM), binary phase shift keying (BPSK), on/off key shifting (OOK), and pulse amplitude modulation (PAM). In addition, time hopping is considered for these modulation schemes, where the capacity per time frame of time hopping PPM is studied using different spreading ratios. This thesis proves that with the addition of time hopping to all types of modulated UWB signals, the performance of power spectral density improves in all aspects, despite the increase of data per time frame. Note that despite the increase of data per frame, the bit error rate remains the same as standard non-time hopping UWB modulated signals

Approximation of L\"owdin Orthogonalization to a Spectrally Efficient Orthogonal Overlapping PPM Design for UWB Impulse Radio

In this paper we consider the design of spectrally efficient time-limited pulses for ultrawideband (UWB) systems using an overlapping pulse position modulation scheme. For this we investigate an orthogonalization method, which was developed in 1950 by Per-Olov L\"owdin. Our objective is to obtain a set of N orthogonal (L\"owdin) pulses, which remain time-limited and spectrally efficient for UWB systems, from a set of N equidistant translates of a time-limited optimal spectral designed UWB pulse. We derive an approximate L\"owdin orthogonalization (ALO) by using circulant approximations for the Gram matrix to obtain a practical filter implementation. We show that the centered ALO and L\"owdin pulses converge pointwise to the same Nyquist pulse as N tends to infinity. The set of translates of the Nyquist pulse forms an orthonormal basis or the shift-invariant space generated by the initial spectral optimal pulse. The ALO transform provides a closed-form approximation of the L\"owdin transform, which can be implemented in an analog fashion without the need of analog to digital conversions. Furthermore, we investigate the interplay between the optimization and the orthogonalization procedure by using methods from the theory of shift-invariant spaces. Finally we develop a connection between our results and wavelet and frame theory.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication 9 Sep 201

Compact optical transmitters for CubeSat free-space optical communications

We present the results of an architectural trade study and prototype implementation of an optical transmitter suitable for resource-constrained CubeSats. Recent advances in CubeSat attitude determination and control systems have made it possible to achieve three-axis stabilization. This is essential for laser communications systems, which have challenging pointing and stability requirements. Our downlink terminal design fits in a 10 cm x 10 cm x 5 cm volume, uses < 10W of power, weighs < 1 kg, and supports data rates up to 50 Mbps. The terminal incorporates pointing, tracking and acquisition optics, an optical fine-steering mechanism, and a compact transmitter. This work focuses on the development of the transmitter for the Nanosatellite Optical Downlink Experiment (NODE). Two transmitter architectures were considered initially: direct modulation of a high-power laser diode and a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA). The MOPA-based approach was selected and a prototype 'breadboard' was built from commercially available components. The prototype transmitter produces high fidelity (extinction ratio, ER < 33 dB) pulse position modulation (PPM) waveforms at 1550nm with 200mW average output power while consuming 6:5W of electrical power. Keywords: free-space optical communications, CubeSat, small satellites, optical transmitters, lasercomUnited States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Space Technology Research Fellowship Program)JPL Strategic University Research Partnership