Improved Noncoherent Demodulation Based on MSDD for Block Differential UWB Communications

Noncoherent receivers are attractive for ultra wideband (UWB) impulse radio systems due to the implementation simplicity. Recently, a block differential transmission scheme was proposed to improve the maximum achievable data rate of noncoherent UWB systems. In this paper, based on the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) optimization criterion, we derive a novel multiple symbol differential detection (MSDD) receiver under block differential transmission framework. Compared with the conventional symbol-by-symbol differential detection (DD) receiver, the proposed MSDD receiver has better performance at the cost of increased computational complexity. We thus propose a reduced-complexity implementation of the MSDD by using a two-step search strategy.