Downlink multiple access schemes for transmitted reference pulse cluster UWB systems

Transmitted reference pulse cluster (TRPC) signaling was recently proposed for low data rate ultra-wideband communications. Compared with the conventional transmitted reference (TR), TRPC has a more compact and uniform spacing for the reference and data pulses and therefore solves the implementation problem posed by the long delay line requirement in the conventional TR. In this paper, downlink multiple access issue is further investigated for TRPC systems. According to the TRPC signaling structure, both code division multiple access (CDMA) and time division multiple access (TDMA) methods are discussed. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that TDMA outperforms CDMA in both bit error rate performance and throughput. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.