On dual peak detection UWB receivers in noise and interference dominated environments

We propose the use of a non-coherent dual peak detection architecture for ultra wideband (UWB) receivers. To benchmark our proposed architecture, the performance of non-coherent UWB receivers based on single peak, dual peak, and energy detectors in the presence of noise and interference is analyzed and compared. Theoretical derivations are presented to evaluate the performance in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels, and simulations are run to verify these results and analyze the detector performance in a multipath fading environments. It is observed that receivers based on peak detection can perform on par or better than receivers based on energy detection in interference dominated environments (such as urban areas) in both AWGN and multi-path fading channels. This allows for the realization of non-coherent UWB receivers with simplified hardware without sacrificing performance. As such, the receiver would operate with increased energy efficiency, making it attractive for low power, low data rate transceivers such as those used in wireless sensor networks.