Clustered channel estimation for temporal UWB returns

Due to their extremely large transmission bandwidth, ultrawideband (UWB) communications systems have the potential for significant multipath capture. However, such capture can be dependent on the accuracy of channel estimation the problem considered herein. Relying on a channel model based on clusters, this paper proposes a maximum likelihood (ML) estimation strategy which exploits the properties of the UWB channel and offers performance improvement over less parametric schemes. The robustness of the proposed algorithm in the presence of pulse distortion is investigated and the corresponding BER degradation is observed to be small.