Multi-template detection of UWB ranging signals in dense multipath environments

Due to its finite-time resolution, the ultra wideband (UWB) technology has been proposed for use in high-resolution ranging. Such ranging systems employ several pingers each having a correlator to determine the direct-path component in the received signal. The problem with a correlation detector is that the ranging performance can significantly drop as the UWB signal experiences distortion, caused by dense multipath propagation. In this paper, we therefore use, instead, a multitemplate detector, whose templates are derived from the covariance structure of distorted UWB signals. The superiority of the new detectors to the conventional one is theoretically analyzed and confirmed through simulations, on the basis of real UWB data.