Study of efficient ranging schemes for low rate ultra wideband systems

Abstract

IEEE 802.15.4a is a working group for developing an alternative systems for low-rate and low-cost WPAN system. It is based on the UWB technology, applicable to the application in indoor communication environments, which has many advantages such as high capacity for multiple access, easiness for penetration through the wall, and low-cost transceiver and high resolution for location awareness features. Among those merits of UWB technologies, high capability for estimating the location between devices with high precision attracts much interest in both academic and industrial fields. Therefore, in IEEE 802.15.4a, Ranging is a mandatory function in most applications. In order to design an efficient ranging systems, we need to consider the following five factors: $\It{ranging accuracy, ranging acquisition time, system complexity, power consumption and cost}$. In literature, many researchers focus on improving the system performance to estimate more fine distances between devices not only by adapting the efficient TOA algorithms with ML but also by transmitting longer data transmission for ranging. In other words, to enhance the ranging process with higher accuracy increases the ranging acquisition time, system complexity or implementation cost. In this respect, we propose an efficient low complexity and cost efficient ranging algorithm, still satisfying the reliably high ranging accuracy comparing the previous works and the novel receiver structure for fast ranging process to reduce the superfluous ranging acquisition time. With the cost-efficient ranging algorithm, we consider the possible four factors, affecting the ranging accuracy. We also take into account the other advantages of the novel receiver structure for fast ranging process.