Spectral KeyingTM: A Novel Modulation Scheme for UWB Systems

N.K. Askar, S.C. Lin, H.D. Pfister, G.E. Rogerson, and D.S. Furuno General Atomics, Photonics Division, 10240 Flanders Court, San Diego, California 92121 {naiel.askar, susan.lin, henry.pfister, gerald.rogerson, david.furuno}@gat.com Abstract. Spectral Keying (SK) is a novel UWB modulation scheme that combines properties of both Frequency Shift Keying and Pulse Position Modulation. An SK symbol consists of a number of pulses where each pulse is from a different frequency band. It relies on dividing the available spectrum into multiple bands. The information is encoded by the sequence of the sent bands. It is found that the SK available symbol set scales factorially with the number of frequency bands in use. Theoretical analysis and simulations of a five band SK system are provided. Measurement results from an experimental SK system are also included.