A frame-level timing acquisition scheme of ultra-wideband signals using multi-templates

In this paper, a novel optimum data-aided timing offset estimator that only relies on symbol-rate samples for frame-level timing acquisition is derived based on the maximum likelihood criterion. For this purpose, we exploit the statistical properties of the power delay profile of the received signals to design a set of the templates to ensure the effective multipath energy capture at any time. We show that the frame-level timing offset acquisition can be transformed into an equivalent amplitude estimation problem which has a closed-form solution. Thus, utilizing the symbol-rate samples extracted by our templates and the ML principle, we obtain channel-dependent amplitude estimates and optimum timing offset estimates. The proposed scheme does not invoke any line search, and moreover, it only relies on symbol-rate samples, which greatly lowers the implementation complexity. The simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.