On the Performance Comparison of UWB Waveforms for Fast Acquisition and Ranging in an Underground Mining Environment

Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication systems provide very high data rates by transmitting extremely short duration pulses. The impulse waveform is one of the key factors that influence the performance of these systems. While fulfilling the FCC spectral emission requirements, the pulse shape must offer high detection capabilities with suitable levels of accuracy. In this paper, various pulse shapes are considered within a computationally-efficient fast acquisition system under different scenarios of interference and Gaussian noise in extensive Monte-Carlo simulations. The results show the 4th order Gaussian derivative as the most suitable pulse shape for this new UWB fast acquisition system suggested for ranging in a peculiar confined environment, which offers very acceptable positioning error range at high levels of noise and interference, while also yielding greatly reduced complexity and acquisition time.