Analysis of a synchronization algorithm for non-coherent UWB receivers

Fast and low-complexity synchronization constitutes a big challenge for ultra-wideband (UWB) radio systems. Due to the ultrafine time-resolvability of the UWB signal and the difficulty of channel estimation, it is difficult to achieve synchronization with accuracy on the order of tens of picoseconds, which is required by coherent UWB receivers. Non-coherent UWB receivers, however, have less stringent requirement for the synchronization accuracy (Ning He and C. Tepedelenlioglu, Proc. GLOBECOM 2004, Nov. 2004). Thus, synchronization algorithms for non-coherent UWB receivers can be developed to achieve synchronization with higher inaccuracy but much lower implementation complexity than coherent receivers. This paper analyzes the performance of a noncoherent synchronization algorithm proposed previously by the authors (Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech, and Sig. Proc., vol. 4, pp. 517-520, 2004). Based on the analysis, parameter optimization to minimize the average acquisition time is pursued. Simulations corroborate our results.