UWB Multipath Response Analysis and Ranging Accuracy Improvement

In-depth understanding of indoor ultra wideband (UWB) radiowave propagation characteristics is very important for indoor UWB communication system design and optimisation. Using the wave propagation channel information, it is possible to improve the ranging accuracy for positioning applications. In this paper, the UWB propagation characteristics is first analysed using both indoor measurement data and ray tracing simulation results. A multipath scattering series is defined based on the channel impulse response. The cumulative distribution function (CDF), mean value and standard deviation (STD) of each scattering series subset are analysed in detail. Then a novel algorithm for ranging accuracy improvement is proposed to deal with the shadowed non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenario. Simulation results show that this new algorithm can improve the ranging accuracy significantly.