Bounds for OFDM ranging accuracy in multipath channels

The performance of wireless ranging depends on both the transmission technique and the propagation channel. Understanding such dependencies is critical to the design of high-accuracy ranging algorithms for multipath propagation environments. In this paper, we focus on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems and derive the bounds for OFDM ranging accuracy in multipath channels based on Fisher information analysis. In particular, we obtain the equivalent Fisher information (EFI) for ranging and quantify the effects of signal and channel parameters on the ranging accuracy. We then evaluate the ranging performance through numerical examples.