Quantized UWB Transmitted Reference Systems

Transmitted reference (TR) based receivers for digital UWB communications are of current interest as they obviate the need for explicit channel estimation. Digital implementation of ultra-wideband (UWB) receivers requires analog-to-digital conversion at an extremely high speed, thereby limiting the available bit-resolution. Herein, the effect of low bit resolution quantization on the bit error rate (BER) performance of UWB TR receivers is investigated. It is shown that the performance is very sensitive to the dynamic range of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Analytical and simulation results reveal that four bits of resolution in combination with an optimal choice for the dynamic range of the ADC are sufficient to closely approach the performance of an infinite resolution ADC