Timing with dirty templates for low-resolution digital UWB receivers

Timing synchronization is a major challenge in ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communication systems. Recently, a timing technique using dirty templates (TDT) has been proposed for rapid synchronization [7], [8]. The TDT technique efficiently collects the multipath energy even when the propagation channel and the spreading codes remain unknown. However, these TDT algorithms rely on delaying and correlating the received analog waveforms and entail an analog delay line, which is not easy to fabricate at the IC level. In this paper, we investigate and evaluate TDT algorithms at a digital UWB receiver with low-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADC) in both data-aided and non-data-aided modes. The analysis and simulations show that the TDT algorithms remain operational for digital UWB receivers with negligible performance degradation.