Practical capacity calculation for time-hopping ultra-wide band multiple-access communications

In this letter the practical capacity, known as the cutoff rate, of time-hopping (TH) ultra-wide band (UWB) communication system is evaluated for multiple-access channels. The cutoff rate can be used for determining various system tradeoffs. For instance, it is shown in this letter that if synchronization problems would preclude high spreading factors, a suitable number of hops can be used instead to achieve the same performance. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the cutoff rate evaluated here can be a fast way of gaining insights into the multiuser capacity of TH-PPM UWB systems.