Cramer–Rao lower bounds and maximum likelihood timing synchronization for dirty template UWB communications

Timing acquisition constitutes a major challenge in realizing ultra-wideband communications. In this paper, we propose the timing with dirty template (TDT) approach as a promising candidate for achieving rapid, accurate and low-complexity acquisition. We describe the dirty template (DT) technique, in order to develop and test timing algorithms in both modes: data-aided (DA) and non-data- aided (NDA) modes. First, we derive the Cramer–Rao lower bound, which is used as a fundamental performance limit for any timing estimator. Next, the TDT acquisition estimator is achieved by using the Maximum Likelihood concept. Then we propose a new method, based on Time-Hoping codes, to improve the performance estimation of the original dirty template algorithms. Simulation shows the estimation error results of the modified method in the DA and NDA modes. It confirms the high performance and fast timing acquisition of DA mode, compared with NDA mode, but with less bandwidth efficiency.