Coarse synchronization of UWB signals in the dense multipath channel based on the golden section

In this paper we address the problem of coarse synchronization of ultra wideband signals in the dense multipath channel, following the widely used hypothesis testing approach in which the uncertainty region for the timing offset is divided into a certain number of cells. We propose a novel strategy for the search of the correct cells, within the constant increment perspective. We show that under a simple model the proposed strategy achieves practically the minimum possible mean acquisition time, independently of the length of the channel impulse response, as opposed to previous constant increment approaches. A comparative analysis of the proposed strategy and another convenient one reveals that, strictly speaking, none of them can be considered optimum from the point of view of the mean acquisition time. The proposed method is advantageous from the point of view of computational complexity in the general case. Simulations with a realistic channel model confirm that the proposed strategy is very appropriate for the problem of coarse synchronization of UWB signals.