Analytical performance of M-ary time-hopping orthogonal PPM UWB systems under multiple access interference

In this paper, we extend the characteristic-function approach to derive an exact symbol error rate expression for the M-ary time-hopping orthogonal pulse position modulation (THPPM) ultra-wideband (UWB) system under the interference from multiple users. Monte Carlo simulations are then used to validate the analytical solutions. The results are found to be valid even when that the chip width is greater than the pulse duration. Moreover, the analytical results are compared to those found by Gaussian approximation and the Gaussian quadrature rule method. We further show that compared to a binary system, M-ary systems can produce better error rate performance.