IEEE WF-IoT Session: Portable Low Power Impulse Radio Ultra Wideband System
Choi Look Law, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Indoor environments are typically complex wireless propagation channels with numerous multi-paths created by closely spaced scattering object. The ability to resolve these multi-paths is very important for good ranging resolution and positioning accuracy. Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wideband (IR-UWB) is a promising technology to fulfill these usage requirements in indoor cluttered environment. A portable low-power IR-UWB system for indoor channel characterization and time of arrival ranging measurements is presented in this paper. The system consists of battery powered transmitters and a four channel receiver array system powered from the USB port of a notebook computer. A novel repetitive coding and stroboscopic sampling technique is used to reduce power consumption while maintaining precise ranging using time of arrival based technique. The repetitive coding also enables data communication capability through the same wireless channel. Power saving and precision ranging is achieved by optimization of the circuit design for ultra short pulses as well as system architecture and operation. The transmitted pulse is captured by low-cost energy-detection receivers with analogue to digital converters running at around 3.2MHz rate. Measurement in a 20m×20m typical indoor environment is currently being conducted and results should be ready in the final paper.