Adapting the Ranging Algorithm to the Positioning Technique in UWB Sensor Networks

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is an emerging technology for short-range wireless communications. Due to the high bandwidth of UWB signals, accurate ranging and positioning is possible, which is one of many reasons why UWB is a candidate physical layer for another emerging research area; that of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this work, we argue that the ranging algorithm design should be made with the characteristics of the positioning algorithm in mind. In considering ranging and positioning in parallel, we are able to construct an estimator of range that is tailored to the positioning algorithm, thereby achieving robustness to non-line-of-sight (NLOS) effects, reasonable overall complexity, and good performance in terms of positioning error. The analysis and simulations in this work are based on the channel models adopted by the IEEE 802.15.4a working group, and highlight the benefits and drawbacks of the proposed approach.