A new approach to low complexity UWB indoor LOS range estimation

In this paper, the possibility of using UWB channel impulse response statistics, other than the TOA, for ranging applications, is investigated. Models for the total received signal power and for the first path power are proposed, based on an extensive UWB measurement campaign conducted in typical office environments. The use of the models is twofold: to obtain a best linear unbiased estimation of the distance and to identify the environment in which the transmitter and receiver are operating. Finally, the bandwidth dependency of the proposed approach is discussed and compared with that of the signal strength method, and a possible low complexity hardware implementation is suggested. The described strategy does not need synchronization between the system nodes, and only modest sampling rates are required. At the same time, the achieved standard deviation of the range error is 0.40 m, about 2.5 times less than obtained with the classical signal strength estimation.