Ultra-wide band (UWB) 6-9 GHz antenna, band pass filter and low-noise amplifier (LNA) optimization using co-simulation of the RF front-end. At higher frequencies, carefully conducted design methodologies are required for RF front-end parameter optimization, such as power gain and low noise figure with low power consumption.

Today, positioning with GPS and the advantages this entails are almost infinitive, which means that the technology can be utilized in a variety of applications. Unfortunately, there exists a lot of limitations in conjunction with the signals from the GPS can’t reach inside e.g. buildings or underground. This means that an alternative solution that works indoors needs to be developed. The report presents the four most common radio-based technologies, Bluetooth,Wi-Fi, UWB and RFID, which can be used to determine a position. These all have different advantages in cost, accuracy and latency, which means that there exist a number of different applications. The radio-based methods use the measurement techniques, RSSI, TOA, TDOA, Cell-ID, PD or AOA to gather data. The choice of measurement technique is mainly dependent of which radio-based method being used, since their accuracy depends on the quality of the measurements and the size of the detection area, which means that all measurement techniques have different advantages and disadvantages. The measurement data is processed with one of the positioning methods, LS, NLS, ML, Cell-ID, WC or FP, to estimate a position. The choice of positioning method also depends on the quality of the measurements in combination with the size of the detection area. To evaluate the different radio-based methods together with measurement techniques and positioning methods, accuracy, latency and cost are being compared. This is used as the basis for the choice of positioning method, since a general solution can get summarized by finding the least expensive approach which can estimate an unknown position with sufficiently high accuracy.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas are one of the most important elements for UWB systems. With the release of the 3.1 - 10.6 GHz band, applications for short-range and high-bandwidth handheld devices are primary research areas in UWB systems. Therefore, the realization of UWB antennas in printed-circuit technologies within relatively small substrate areas is of primary importance. This thesis focuses on the design of a new UWB antenna based on coplanar technology. Compared with microstrip circuitry, coplanar technology achieves easier fabrication and wider antenna bandwidth. Two professional full-wave field solver software packages, HFSS and MEFiSTo-3D, are used as analysis tools to obtain antenna performances. A new printed-circuit antenna in coplanar technology for UWB systems is introduced. The frequency of operation is 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz with a VSWR < 2. Nearly omni-directional characteristics in vertical polarization are demonstrated at selected frequencies. Relatively good group delay characteristics are obtained and compare well with other published UWB antenna designs.

Broadband Internet access technologies and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) have enabled service providers to deliver high-definition video streams to the doorsteps of IPTV subscribers. On the other hand, how to distribute the high data rate, delay sensitive video traffic to almost all rooms in a typical household environment becomes a new challenge. There are several approaches proposed for IPTV in-home distribution, among which the wireless ones are very attractive due to their flexibility and affordability, but the physical and media access control (MAC) layer limitations in most existing wireless technologies still impend the success of video streaming over wireless networks. Recently, WiMedia Alliance has finalized its MB-OFDM based Ultra Wide Band (UWB) standards for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN). WiMedia UWB supports two MAC protocols: Distributed Reservation Protocol (DRP) and Prioritized Channel Access (PCA), which are very suitable for high-quality video streaming. Based on our experimentation experience, the focus of our work is to develop an analytical model for WiMedia UWB MAC protocols using the renewal reward theorem framework and quantify the video streaming performance considering all practical features (PCA, Hard DRP, Soft DRP, TXOP) of WiMedia MAC protocols. We have done extensive simulation in \textit{NS-2} to validate the model and further evaluate the performance of WiMedia UWB MAC protocols.

Ultra wideband (UWB) systems have the potential for extremely high data rate transmission, accurate ranging and positioning. In order to build systems that realize all the potential of UWB, it is first required to understand LT B propagation and the channel properties arising from the propagation. One of the key objectives of this thesis is to explore the characteristics of the UWB indoor channel. Through extensive time domain measurement, the channel reciprocity, spatial correlation, body shadow effect and temporal variation are investigated. Firstly, the existence of channel reciprocity is verified in both baseband and bandpass channels (from 4 GHz to 8 GHz). and channel reciprocity is demonstrated to be frequency independent and distance independent. Secondly, the spatial correlation is investigated on a two dimensional grid, and has been found to follow the trend of a two dimensional Bessel function as spatial distance increases. Thirdly. the interference of the received power and RMS delay spread due to body shadow effect is studied, indicating that the UWB system is highly robust to body shadowing as compared to narrowband systems. Finally. - extensive measurements of the UWB channel's temporal variation in a modern office building under diversified sets of conditions are conducted. A real time measurement is highly robust, to body shadowing as compared to narrowband systems. Finally. extensive measurements of the UWB channel's temporal variation in a modern office building under diversified sets of conditions are conducted. A real time measurement campaign involving mobile scatterers was performed in a typical office environment, hallway environment and lobby environment, to investigate the signal strength fluctuation, temporal correlation and Doppler spread. The analysis of the measurement results provide useful information for UN B system design. transceiver implementation and performance evaluation. The other goal of the thesis is to demonstrate the implementation of the transmitted reference pulse cluster (TRPC) receiver prototype. This prototype modulates data with binary phase shift keyed pulses. communicates over a wireless link using UWB antennas and a wideband direct conversion front-.end. and samples the auto-correlation output of the received signal for demodulation. Commercial off the shelf components are used to build the receiver, and design con¬siderations are introduced for each part of the receiver in detail.

Σε αυτή την εργασία, αφού παρουσιαστεί αναλυτικά η τεχνολογία UWB, μελετούνται από τη βιβλιογραφία τρόποι για την εκτίμηση του ασύρματου καναλιού με χρήση δεδομένων εκπαίδευσης. Στη συνέχεια, υπάρχει μια ανάλυση της προσομοίωσης που έγινε με τη βοήθεια του λογισμικού MATLΑB η οποία υλοποιεί τον πομπό, το κανάλι και το δέκτη με εκτιμητή καναλιού και στο τέλος μελετάται η απόδοση του συστήματος. / This report presents the UWB impulse radio technology and contains a relevant study of channel estimation techniques. In next chapters there is a MATLAB simulation for the full system and the channel estimator subsystem and conclusions are made.

Αντικείμενο της παρούσης διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι ο σχεδιασμός ενός συνθέτη συχνοτήτων για MB-OFDM (Multiband Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing) UWB εφαρμογές. Ο συνθέτης συχνοτήτων αποτελεί εξέχουσας σημασίας δομικό στοιχείο των RF πομποδεκτών αφού είναι υπεύθυνος για την παραγωγή του (LO oscillator) σήματος που οδηγεί τον downconverter και τον upconverter στο μονοπάτι του δέκτη και του πομπού αντίστοιχα. Μελετήθηκαν οι δομές, οι κυριότερες τοπολογίες και τα χαρακτηριστικά ενός τυπικού συνθέτη συχνοτήτων καθώς και τα κύρια εξαρτήματα που το απαρτίζουν. Αφού μελετήσαμε το βασικό και το εναλλακτικό σχέδιο συχνοτήτων όπως παρουσιάζεται από το MB-OFDM πρότυπο προτείναμε την κατάλληλη τοπολογία η οποία και διαφέρει από αυτή των τυπικών συνθετών συχνοτήτων που χρησιμοποιούνται ευρέως στα ασύρματα συστήματα τηλεπικοινωνιών λόγω των υψηλών απαιτήσεων της UWΒ τεχνολογίας. Η επιλογή των εξαρτημάτων που απαρτίζουν τον συνθέτη συχνοτήτων έγινε με βάση την ελαχιστοποίηση του θορύβου φάσης και της κατανάλωσης ισχύος, της εξάλειψης ανεπιθύμητων σημάτων στην έξοδό του, τα οποία μπορούν να δημιουργήσουν παρεμβολές σε άλλα τηλεπικοινωνιακά συστήματα καθώς και την επίτευξη μικρού χρόνου αποκατάστασης που απαιτεί ένας τέτοιος συνθέτης. Προτείνεται και εξομοιώθηκε λοιπόν συνθέτης συχνοτήτων με περιοχή λειτουργίας του από 3.1 έως 10.6 GHz με βήμα συχνότητας 528 MHz όπως αυτή ορίζεται από το πρότυπο 802.15.3 που αναφέρεται στην UWB τεχνολογία. Από τα αποτελέσματα της εξομοίωσης προκύπτει ότι επιτυγχάνεται χαμηλός θόρυβος φάσης, μικρός χρόνος αποκατάστασης και μικρή ισχύς των ανεπιθύμητων σημάτων, αποτελέσματα που συνάδουν με τις απαιτήσεις της UWB τεχνολογίας. Τέλος προτείνεται και υλοποιείται η πλακέτα του βρόχου κλειδωμένης φάσης ο οποίος και αποτελεί το βασικό δομικό στοιχείο του συνθέτη συχνοτήτων. / The subject of the present essay is the design of a frequency synthesizer for MB-OFDM (Multiband Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing) UWB applications. The frequency synthesizer is a structural part of foremost importance at the RF transceivers, as it is responsible for the production of the signal (LO oscillator) that leads the downconverter and the upconverter at the path of the receiver and the transmitter correspondingly. Structures, principal topologies and a typical’s frequency synthesizer characteristics have been studied, as well as the main components that compose it. After having studied the current and the alternate frequency plan –as presented by MB-OFDM standard-, we proposed the proper topology, which is different from the one for the typical frequency synthesizers, that are widely used at the RF communication systems, due to UWB technology’s high specifications. The choice of the components that compose the frequency synthesizer is based on the minimization of the phase noise and the power consumption, on the reduction of spurious signals during its entrance, which can create interferences to other communicational systems, as well as on the accomplishment of a short settling time, which a synthesizer of this kind demands. So, a frequency synthesizer with a frequency range from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz, with a frequency step of 528 MHz -as it is defined from the standard 802.15.3 that is referred at UWB technology-, has been proposed and simulated. From the results of the simulation, it emerges that a low phase noise is accomplished, a short settling time and a low power of spurious signals, results that add up to UWB technology’s specifications. Finally, the PCB (printed circuit board) of the phase locked loop - which consists the basic structural part of the frequency synthesizer - has been proposed and implemented.

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This thesis work aims for the development of an autonomous model car to evaluate an indoor Ultra-wideband (UWB) positioning system and for the investigation of integrating a Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensor to the final system. The goal to be achieved is that the model car should be able to receive a travel plan specified by the user, run autonomously along the plan by receiving the continuously updated position and stop in front of obstacles. A prototype of such a model car has been developed. It is shown that it was able to travel along the plan specified by a user with aid of the positioning system and proven that the concept of an autonomous vehicle guided with the positioning system works. The model car was tested and the performance of it merged with the positioning system was evaluated by travelling along a circle and a sharp, 90° corner and by measuring the lap times from the travelling for various error margins. The error margin decides when a destination is deemed reached. The test results show that the model car has limitations to its slowest speed and turning radius. The results also show that the positioning system has significant position updating latency. Integrating a LIDAR to the model car is shown to be beneficial, in particular, when adding information of e.g. walls and doors in advance and the LIDAR then acting as a perceptive system to obtain information of the unknown parts of the surrounding. This can then result in a time optimal travel plan that can adapt to a dynamic environment.

Abstract This Thesis examines low complexity receiver structures for impulse-radio (IR) ultra-wideband (UWB) systems to be used in wireless sensor network applications. Such applications require radio communication solutions characterized by low cost, low complexity hardware and low power consumption to provide very long battery life. Analysis of several auto-correlation receiver (AcR) structures is performed in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise to identify receiver structures that offer a good compromise between implementation complexity and data communication performance. The classes of receiver that demonstrate the best complexity/performance trade-off are shown to be the AcR utilising transmitted-reference with binary pulse amplitude modulation signaling, and the energy detector (ED) utilising binary pulse position modulation. The analysis of these two schemes is extended to consider multipath fading channels. Numerically integrable bit error rate probability (BEP) expressions are derived in order to evaluate the receivers' performance in the presence of fading distributions characterized by closed form characteristic functions. Simulations utilising widely accepted UWB channel models are then used to evaluate the BEP in different indoor environments. Since UWB systems share frequency spectrum with many narrowband (NB) systems, and need to coexist with other UWB systems, the performance of low complexity receivers can be seriously affected by interference. In the presence of NB interference, two cases have been considered: 1) single NB interference, where the interfering node is located at a fixed distance from the receiver, and 2) multiple NB interference, where the interfering nodes are scattered according to a spatial Poisson process. When considering UWB interference, the case of multiple sources of interference has been considered. For both the multiple NB and the multiple UWB interference cases, the model derived considers several interference parameters, which can be integrated into BEP formulations for quick performance evaluations. The framework is sufficiently simple to allow tractable analysis and can serve as a guideline for the design of heterogeneous networks where coexistence between UWB systems and NB systems is of importance. The very large bandwidth of UWB signals offers an unprecedented possibility for accurate ranging operations. Signal leading-edge estimation algorithms based on average maximum likelihood estimators are derived considering different multipath channel fading distributions. Suboptimal solutions are proposed and investigated in order to support ranging capabilities in low complexity receiver structures. The ability to identify line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight conditions with the ED-based receiver is also addressed. An example of an IR-UWB low complexity transceiver based on ED for sensor network applications is proposed in this Thesis. Ad-hoc solutions for pulse transmission, synchronization and data detection are developed.