Ultra-wideband Communications
Many applications in wireless communications often require short-range systems capable of rapidly collecting data and transmitting it reliably. Commercial communication systems operate in fixed frequency bands and are easily detectable and are prone to jamming by the enemy, among other shortcomings. The new ultra-wideband (UWB) communications system in the 3.1 to 10 GHz band is of significant interest to a number of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) programs including the Nonproliferation, Arms Control, and International Security (NAI) Directorate. Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology has received a significant degree of attention from communications industry since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rulings in February 2002. According to FCC, UWB signals have fractional bandwidth (B{sub f}) of 20% or larger at -10 dB cut-off frequencies, with minimum bandwidth of 500 MHz. Unlike traditional communication systems, UWB systems modulate carrier-less, short-duration (picosec to nanosec) pulses to transmit and receive information. A number of programmatic problems at LLNL, particularly in the NAI and other national security Directorates, require collecting information from multiple sensors distributed over a local area. The information must be collected covertly and by wireless means. The sensors produce data using low power devices and the communication link must operate in severe multipath environments over tens of meters; often the links must be channelized to handle multiple sensors. The communications links between these sensors is a critical issue in the development of LLNL programs to demonstrate distributed sensor network performance in real-time. In summary, such systems must be robust; have a low probability of detection and intercept; employ low-power, small-size hardware; and interface easily with other systems for analysis or to establish long-distance links. The purpose of this work was to develop a new UWB radio-frequency (RF) communications system for the UWB RF band. In this project we addressed the need for robust UWB communication systems with low-power, small-size sensor communication hardware. Our research results have successfully addressed these issues and we developed UWB radios and interfaced these radios with repeater radios for longer distance links. In particular, research and development challenges included signal processing and communication design problems, including developing novel UWB modulation and demodulation schemes, link budget analysis for ultra-wideband signals, multipath mitigation, short-pulse signal synchronization, and building real working radios. We have had a significant degree of success in solving these technical challenges. As a result, several programmatic efforts have spun off from our R&D work in FY04.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15013960
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-TR-202326; TRN: US200803%%769
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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