Abstract:

Nonparametric time-of-arrival (TOA) estimators for impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) signals are proposed. Nonparametric detection is obviously useful in situations where detailed information about the statistics of the noise is unavailable or not accurate. Such TOA estimators are obtained based on conditional
statistical tests with only a symmetry distribution assumption on the noise probability density function. The nonparametric estimators are attractive choices for low-resolution IR-UWB digital receivers which can be implemented by fast comparators or high sampling rate low resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs),
in place of high sampling rate high resolution ADCs which may not be available in practice. Simulation results demonstrate that nonparametric TOA estimators provide more effective and robust performance than typical energy detection (ED) base estimators.

Key words: conditional test, nonparametric estimator, time-ofarrival (TOA), low-resolution