Abstract— Ultra wideband (UWB) radio has emerged as an attractive candidate for short-range wireless communica¬tions in recent years due to its unique features. However, implementation of UWB radios in order to utilize these features is coupled with some pronounced design challenges. To achieve precise timing synchronization is one of the most crucial task among them and is a key factor to ensure a reliable performance of such systems. In this paper, we present an overview and comparative study of three synchronization algorithms which provide efficient perfor¬mance under unique signal and channel characteristics of UWB. These algorithms employ cross-correlation, PN code matching and energy detection operations respectively to achieve synchronization. The performance is then analyzed by numerical results under realistic propagation environ¬ment that takes into account the severe multipath and inter-frame interference (IFI). Also, hardware complexity and acquisition speeds of these algorithms are discussed.

Index Terms— Impulse radio ultra wideband (IR-UWB), time hopping (TH), synchronization, dirty template, asym¬metric modulation, code matching

Cite:Rizwan Akbar, Emanuel Radoi, and Stéphane Azou, "Comparative Analysis of some Low-Complexity Blind Synchronization Algorithms for IR-UWB Systems," Journal of Communications, vol. 7, no.5, pp.374-381, 2012. Doi: 10.4304/jcm.7.5.374-381