Performance of transmitted reference pulse cluster UWB communication systems using LDPC codes

Transmitted reference pulse cluster (TRPC) structure was proposed as an improved transmitted reference (TR) signaling for low date-rate ultra-wideband (UWB) communications. In the uncoded case, TRPC outperforms the conventional TR and non-coherent pulse position modulation (NC-PPM) signaling schemes. Moreover, it overcomes the implementation problem of the long delay line inherent in the conventional TR. Therefore, TRPC is a promising candidate for noncoherent UWB communication systems. Accordingly, coded TRPC has also been developed employing several forward error correction (FEC) codes, such as Reed-Solomon and convolutional codes. Based on these previous works, in this paper low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are introduced to the TRPC system and two methods are presented to construct the parity-check matrix for LDPC codes. We evaluate the bit error rate (BER) performance of the two corresponding LDPC codes in the IEEE 802.15.4a channels. Results show that both the two investigated LDPC codes obtain significant performance gains in terms of the BER over the existing FEC codes used in the TRPC system.