Block-Coded Modulation and Noncoherent Detection for Impulse Radio UWB

Noncoherent receivers are favored for UWB-IR systems because of their low implementation complexity compared with coherent correlation receivers. However, existing noncoherent schemes, such as transmitted reference (TR) systems and frame-level differential receivers (FDR), suffer from performance degradation and energy efficiency loss. We propose to use block-coded modulation and develop a novel energy detection-based noncoherent reception scheme for UWB-IR systems. Our scheme is capable of effective noise/interference mitigation without loss of energy efficiency and data rate. Performance evaluation shows that even in the presence of strong inter-frame interference and multiuser interference, our scheme is robust.