A TOA Estimation Method for IR-UWB Ranging Systems

In recent years, IR-UWB technology is introduced to TOA estimation and widely used in ranging systems for its high resolution in time domain. This paper proposes a novel TOA estimation method based on fractional correlation, which is a generalization of traditional time domain correlation. Since fractional correlation has shift variant property, it presents some interesting characters, e.g. the correlation peak changes for variable time delays. The implementation detail of the new method is investigated and then simulations are performed using Chirp signal and Gaussian signal. Results show that a controllable vari-range TOA estimation can be implemented by fractional correlation.