Acquisition of an UWB communications system in the presence of a large UWB interference user

Summary form only given. Ultra wide band (UWB) is a new time hopping (TH) multiple access communication technique. This technique utilizes pseudo noise (PN) pulse position dithering to achieve multiple access capabilities. In the initial acquisition stage the receiver is confronting a low SNR and experiences multiple access interference (MAI) from other UWB users. Combining the characteristic of the UWB modulation technique and low SNR condition makes the acquisition problem relatively difficult with respect to the conventional spread spectrum technique. In this work a novel technique to improve acquisition performance is proposed. The new technique is shown to detect UWB pilot signals in the presence of large interference UWB users. The false alarm and detect probabilities (PFA, PD) of the improved acquisition scheme are analyzed and presented. Special attention is given to a reported set of TH sequences. The reported sequences are based on quadratic congruences, which have bounded cross correlation properties. The improved scheme is simple and its complexity comparable to the conventional reported scheme. The acquisition performance and the scheme simplicity makes it appropriate for modern UWB receivers.