Joint directions finding and material typecasting through IR-UWB communications

This paper presents an algorithm that interprets the specificities of the received waveforms associated with well-isolated multipath echoes, depending on the type of interaction and on the direction-dependent signal deformations due to antennas. The goal is to jointly estimate Direction of Arrival (DoA), Direction of Departure (DoD) and reflecting material for simple-bounce interaction in a peer-to-peer Impulse Radio - Ultra Wide Band (IR-UWB) communication context. The proposed technique is mainly based on prior antenna characterisation and on prediction of site-specific filtering effects due to simple electromagnetic interactions with environment (i.e. simple-bounce reflections). Simulation results are provided to illustrate the expected performance of such a system. The proposed technique discloses new perspective for context-aware services in wireless networks.