Joint Code Acquisition and Channel Estimation for UWB Transmission

This paper deals with joint channel estimation and pseudo-noise code acquisition for ultra-wideband communications. The estimation and acquisition in a realistic frequency selective channel, and in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise are based on the maximum-likelihood criterion. In particular, three systems are considered, namely, time-hopping, direct-sequence, and bi-orthogonal time-hopping CDMA digital systems. The efficiency of the synchronization process and the quality of the channel estimates are assessed and compared via analysis and simulations. Specifically, the performance of different systems are compared in terms of probability of correct synchronization, mean-square error of the channel estimates, and bit-error-rate.