Performance of transmitted reference pulse cluster ultra-wideband systems with forward error correction

Recently, an improved transmitted reference (TR) signaling scheme, referred to as transmitted reference pulse cluster (TRPC), was proposed for low-rate ultra-wideband (UWB) communications. Compared with conventional TR, TRPC has a more compact and uniform spacing for the reference and data pulses and therefore addresses the implementation problems posed by the long delay line requirement, as well as provides better bit error rate (BER) performance. In this paper, a TRPC-UWB system, which includes practical forward error correction (FEC) coding such as that specified in the IEEE 802.15.4a standard, as well as more powerful convolutional codes, is developed. A performance analysis, which highlights the importance of selecting appropriate FEC codes, is presented. Results show that with a suitable FEC code, the TRPC-UWB system is a promising candidate for low-rate wireless personal area networks.