Multiband uwb system performance with random-clustering multipath-rich fading channels

This paper provides a novel performance analysis for UWB systems that successfully captures the unique multipath-rich property and multipath-clustering phenomenon of UWB channels. Using the Saleh-Valenzuela model, we characterize the pairwise error probability and the outage probability for UWB systems employing multiband OFDM based on the cluster arrival rate, the ray arrival rate within a cluster, and the cluster and ray decay factors. Furthermore, the effect of random-clustering phenomenon on the performance of UWB-MIMO systems is analyzed. The theoretical results reveal that regardless of the clustering behavior of UWB channels, the diversity gain can be improved by increasing the number of jointly encoded subcarriers, the number of jointly encoded OFDM symbols, or the number of antennas. The coding gain on the other hand, depends heavily on the cluster-arriving channels. Extensive simulation results are provided to support the theoretical analysis