Transceiver Design for Ultra-Wideband Communications

Despite the fact ultra-wideband (UWB) technology has been around for over 30 years, there is a newfound excitement about its potential for communications. With the advantageous qualities of multipath immunity and low power spectral density, researchers are examining fundamental questions about UWB communication systems. In this work, we examine UWB communication systems paying particular attention to transmitter and receiver design. This thesis is specifically focused on a software radio transceiver design for impulse-based UWB with the ability to transmit a raw data rate of 100 Mbps yet encompasses the adaptability of a reconfigurable digital receiver. A 500 ps wide Gaussian pulse is generated at the transmitter utilizing the fast-switching characteristics of a step recovery diode. Pulse modulation is accomplished via several stages of RF switches, filters, and amplifiers on a fully designed printed circuit board specifically manufactured for this project. Critical hardware components at the receiver consist of a bank of ADCs performing parallel sampling and an FPGA employed for data processing. Using a software radio design, various modulation schemes and digital receiver topologies are accommodated along with a vast number of algorithms for acquisition, synchronization, and data demodulation methods. Verification for the design is accomplished through transmitter hardware testing and receiver design simulation. The latter includes bit error rate testing for a variety of modulation schemes and wireless channels using a pilot-based matched filter estimation technique. Ultimately, the transceiver design demonstrates the advantages and challenges of UWB technology while boasting high data rate communication capability and providing the flexibility of a research testbed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Orndorff, Aaron

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Buehrer, R. Michael

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Reed, Jeffrey H.
• Sweeney, Dennis G.

• ultra-wideband
• software radio
• impulse radio
• pilot-based matched filter
• step recovery diode
• biphase modulation
• pulse position modulation
• on-off keying

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05242004-141034

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/33179