A low complexity, medium data rate, ultra-wideband communication method and system

This paper describes a low complexity, medium data rate, short-range, ultra-wideband (UWB) communication system suitable for low-cost and low-power personal area wireless network (PAN) applications. The system combines pulsed and orthogonal frequency communication techniques. The data bits to be transmitted are encoded with antipodal base-band signals generated using a set of orthogonal sinusoidal sub-carriers. The resulting signal is amplitude modulated into a radio-frequency signal with a bandwidth greater than 500MHz. This approach maximizes transmitted signal power for a fixed maximum power spectral density (PSD) and bandwidth. Using an antipodal modulation scheme minimizes the bit error rate of the communication system. The system can use the UWB frequency band plan defined for the multi-band orthogonal frequency division multiplexing standard (MB-OFDM), and adapt the transmitted signal spectrum to the bands authorized in a given geographical area. Experimental tests were carried out for a carrier frequency of 3.96 GHz and a bandwidth of 500 MHz (at - 10dB level), and with a maximum transmitted PSD limited to - 41.3 dBm/MHz. The proposed system has a demonstrated operational line-of-sight communication distance of 7 m for a data rate in the range 16 - 25 Mbit/s and a bit error rate less than 10^-4 without an error correction code.