A New UWB Synchronization Scheme Using Multipath Components Jointly

In ultra-wideband (UWB) systems, conventionally, the synchronization is to align time phases of a locally generated template and any of multipath components to within an allowable range. However, the synchronization with a low-power multipath component could incur significant performance degradation in receiver operation (e.g., detection) after the synchronization. On the other hand, the synchronization with a high-power multipath component can improve the performance in receiver operation after the synchronization. Generally, the first one among multi- path components has the largest power. Thus, the synchronization with the first path component can make better performance than that with a low-power component in receiver operations after the synchronization. Based on which, we first propose an optimal decision rule based on a maximum likelihood (ML) approach, and then, develope a simpler suboptimal decision rule for selecting the first path component. Simulation results show that the optimal and suboptimal decision rules have better performance than the conventional decision rule in UWB multipath channels.