UWB channel sounding and signal processing

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Following the recent approval by FCC and other regulatory bodies around the world for the unlicensed use of Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology, UWB devices are currently under development for the mass consumer market mainly for use in personal entertainment applications and for use in short range wireless peer-to-peer pico area networks (WPAN). Due to the low power levels allowed for UWB transceivers, the range of a communications type UWB transmitter is limited to about 10 metres. To extend the range of UWB, it has been proposed to use fibre backbones to interconnect different piconets in a building. This program is directed at identifying the fundamental issues surrounding the use of UWB technology for imaging and for  high speed communications and the inter-connection of UWB piconets through backbone fibres. The emphasis will be on UWB channel characterization, and development of smart signal design, signal processing and measurement algorithms to avoid the introduction of unneeded interference into conventional systems such as 802.11 WLANs, and to enhance the performance of UWB receivers in the presence of narrowband interference. The research to be done may be summarized as follows: a) Carry out  measurements to characterise the wireless UWB channel for UWB communications applications in terms of impulse responses and propagation path loss subject to various conditions such as different building types and also different interference conditions. The measurement results will be used to generate reliable stochastic models for the UWB channel. b) Combined channel and signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) estimation and data detection algorithms for use in coded, cognitive UWB transceivers. Our developments will be based on the measured channel characteristics, typical phase noise masks for economical optical modulators and detectors and measured co-channel interference levels. The sought after algorithms will target UWB waveform design for interference avoidance and will be suitable for incorporation in software-based UWB transceivers. c) Investigation of the statistical characteristics of UWB interference as viewed by narrow-band receivers.