Semi-blind ML synchronization for UWB transmitted reference systems

Timing acquisition is one of the most critical issues in ultra-wideband (UWB) communications and poses a serious challenge to the deployment of impulse radio as a viable wireless technology. In most systems, timing acquisition is achieved by transmitting a training sequence at the beginning of each data burst. In this work, a semi-blind synchronization scheme based on maximum-likelihood (ML) techniques to recover both symbol and frame timing is studied. The proposed algorithm compares favorably to previously proposed UWB acquisition strategies and can be successfully employed in conjunction with both coherent and non-coherent detection strategies.