RAKE performance for a pulse based UWB system in a realistic UWB indoor channel

The performance of a RAKE receiver for a pulse based ultra-wideband (UWB) communications system is studied in a realistic channel model that is based on an extensive set of indoor channel measurements. The RAKE receiver is shown to contribute to a mitigation of the ISI. In particular, at low input SNR values and small number of RAKE taps, it is shown that employing additional RAKE taps for energy capture is more important to overall system performance than employing equalization to combat the ISI. The performance of the RAKE with some realistic channel estimation errors is also studied.