Enhancements to threshold based range estimation for ultra-wideband systems

Ultra-wideband (UWB) signals have very high time resolution, which makes them a very good candidate for range estimation based wireless positioning. Although the accuracy is the major concern for range estimation, it is also important to have low-complexity algorithms that can be employed in real time. In this study, two low-complexity range estimation algorithms are proposed for UWB signals, which achieve improved performance compared to the state-of-the-art low-complexity ranging algorithms. The proposed algorithms are inspired from two well-known algorithms; 'serial backward search' (SBS) and 'jump back and search forward' (JBSF). Performances of the proposed algorithms are compared with those of the SBS and JBSF algorithms based on real measurements. In addition, theoretical bounds are calculated in order to quantify the statistical performance of the algorithms. © 2014 IEEE.