Relay-assisted UWB communications: links characterization and power allocation

Abstract

Ultra-wide bandwidth (UWB) technology is rising interest for several applications dealing with wireless communication and network localization. Inherent coverage limitations can be overcome via relaying. We propose an analytical framework for the performance evaluation of relay-assisted UWB communications that account for (a) new single link characterization in IEEE 802.15.4a channels, (b) network topology, and (c) various power allocation techniques. Starting from a new class of tight bounds characterizing the performance in each link, the framework enables to quantify the benefits of relaying for ideal power control, uniform power distribution and optimal power allocation minimizing the bit error probability (BEP).