Effects of IEEE 802.11a narrowband interference on a UWB communication system

An exact analysis is derived for precisely calculating the bit error probability of an ultra-wideband communication system operating in IEEE 802.11a narrowband interference. The analytical expressions are used to assess the accuracy of the Gaussian approximation, a widely adopted method for estimating the interference. The Gaussian approximation is shown to be inaccurate for predicting the bit error rate for some system parameters. The performance degradation of the ultra-wideband communication system in the presence of interference from orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signals is accurately evaluated. Several modulation schemes proposed for ultra-wideband communications are compared in terms of capability for OFDM interference suppression. The effects of system parameters on the bit error rate performance are also addressed through numerical examples.