Frequency-Shifted Reference Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Communications

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract ECCS-0725616 D. Goeckel, University of Massachusetts Amherst The Intellectual Merit of this project is motivated by the desire for extremely wideband communication system architectures, which have the potential to achieve accurate positioning, material penetration, overlay with other wireless communication systems, and the support of many users in a given area. Thus, the research objective is to solve the challenges of low-power high-performance transceiver architectures that are scalable to extreme bandwidths. The project considers a novel framework that solves the difficult channel estimation problem in such architectures by sending a reference signal that is slightly shifted in frequency from the data signal. This allows for efficient data recovery with a simple low-power receiver. This project will address the key research challenges within this framework. In systems with extreme bandwidths, there is significant in-band interference, and thus the systems aspects of a multi-channel receiver for interference rejection will be developed. The efficient support of many users through varying frequency offset signatures and corresponding receiver architectures will also be developed. Next, the fundamental performance limits of this simple system versus the optimal achievable for any system will be considered. Finally, a wireless testbed built upon the proposed framework will be used to both characterize performance and allow verification of the theoretical approaches. The Broader Impacts of this project center around: (1) the social and economic impact of simple, low-power communication architectures with the advantages of extreme bandwidth as discussed above, and (2) the education of graduate and undergraduate students in a compelling technology area. In particular, such extremely wideband systems are attractive for a wide variety of applications, particularly those that require accurate positioning in addition to extremely robust communication. The project will also support significant graduate student research on the theoretical topics, and continue an extensive and successful program of diverse undergraduate research through wideband system design and construction.