A system and method for including multiple data rate sub-blocks within a single data block includes dividing data blocks based on a priority or intended set of recipients. The sub-blocks are modulated at increasing data rates and the modulated sub-blocks are appended together and bounded by the known symbol blocks during transmission. The sub-blocks are organized in order of increasing data rate. During decoding, detected symbols of a first, low data rate sub-block are included in the detection process of higher data rate sub-blocks in place of additional symbols that would otherwise be needed for higher data rate transmissions. Alternatively, the sub-blocks may be organized with low data rate sub-block at the periphery and higher data rate sub-blocks in the interior such that the data block may be decoded from both ends.

Systems, methods, and computer-readable medium are provided for utilizing a hybrid of ultra-wideband (UWB) and narrowband (NB) signaling to provide more efficient operating range and operating efficiency. For example, a first device may schedule transmission of a packet via a narrowband signal to a second device. The first device may then transmit the packet, whereby the packet conveys synchronization data that is used by the second device to schedule reception of a plurality of fragments, respectively, via an ultra-wideband (UWB) signal. The first device may then schedule and transmit the plurality of segments to the second device via the ultra-wideband signals, each fragment being time-spaced from other fragments of the plurality of fragments by at least a predefined time interval.

Techniques are provided for utilizing a hybrid of ultra-wideband (UWB) and narrowband (NB) signaling to provide more efficient operating range and operating efficiency. In one example, a first device may transmit a first packet via an NB signal to a second device, whereby the first packet comprises information indicating to the second device a time period for reception of a second (UWB) packet. In this example, the second packet may comprise a first partition and a second partition, whereby the first partition comprises a first plurality of fragments and the second partition comprising a second plurality of fragments. The respective fragments of each plurality of fragments may be transmitted via a UWB signal. The first device may then transmit the first plurality of fragments, and then subsequently transmit the second plurality of fragments to the second device, the first and second pluralities respectively being associated with different fragment types.

An ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communication system, comprises a first wireless apparatus; a second wireless apparatus that participates in a first ranging sequence with the first wireless apparatus; and a transmission channel between the first and second wireless apparatuses that transmits data of the first ranging sequence. At least one of the first wireless apparatus or second wireless apparatus generating at least one channel impulse response (CIR) and determining from the at least one CIR whether the transmission channel includes a line-of-sight channel. A special purpose processor reduces a current performance level of at least one of the first and second wireless apparatuses during a second ranging sequence in response to a determination that the transmission channel includes the line-of-sight channel.

In accordance with a first aspect of the present disclosure, a communication device is provided, comprising: at least two antennas; an ultra-wideband (UWB) communication unit configured to receive UWB frames through said antennas; a controller configured to switch between said antennas such that consecutive UWB frames are received through different ones of said antennas; wherein the controller is further configured to compute channel impulse responses (CIRs) wherein each of said CIRs is based on a different one of said UWB frames. In accordance with a second aspect of the present disclosure, a corresponding method of operating a communication device is conceived. In accordance with a third aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program is provided for carrying out said method.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide for use of a linear chirp signal as a basis for a sensing signal. Modification of the linear chirp signal by a signature function can allow a receiver of the sensing signal to determine an identity for a source of the sensing signal. Accordingly, upon processing the received sensing signal to obtain path parameter estimates, the receiver can direct a transmission of an indication of the path parameter estimates to the source of the sensing signal. Aspects of the present application relate to performing multi-node, multi-path channel estimation on the basis of processing the received sensing signal. Conveniently, the processing is performed with low complexity.

A wireless sensor network deployment structure combined with SFFT and COA and a frequency spectrum reconstruction method therefor. The wireless sensor network deployment structure includes: frequency spectrum acquisition sensor nodes dispersed in each region, and a sink node, wherein all the frequency spectrum acquisition sensor nodes have the same structure, and include: a broadband frequency spectrum antenna, a delayer, an ADC, a first baseband processing module, a DAC and a transmitting antenna that are successively connected; all the frequency spectrum acquisition sensor nodes are cooperated to realize SFFT and COA of signals; the signals transmitted by all the frequency spectrum acquisition sensor nodes are superimposed over the air and received by the sink node; and the sink node extracts a data domain from a received signal frame by post-processing, thereby completing frequency spectrum reconstruction. The solution can be easily deployed in an existing wireless sensor network without changing the traditional ADC working mode and communication mode; moreover, the delay is shorter, the sampling rate of the reconstructed frequency spectrum is higher, and the complexity is lower.

A method and apparatus for synchronizing a wireless communication receiver such as a Bluetooth receiver, including estimating the condition of the communication channel and operating the receiver either in frequency domain mode or in time domain mode based on the channel condition estimation. A soft threshold is used to estimate the symbols of the access address code. Oversampled data rate received data is processed at symbol rate of the data. Receiver functions are terminated upon determining that no signal that the receiver can decode is being received. Synchronization includes a correlator that processes an entire address code or a correlator that processes the address code in segments.

A method for automatically identifying an impairment of a communication medium includes (1) obtaining a spectrum response of communication signals traveling through the communication medium, (2) converting the spectrum response from a frequency domain to a time domain, to generate an impulse response, and (3) identifying the impairment of the communication medium at least partially based on one or more characteristics of the impulse response.

Systems and methods for coverage enhanced reciprocity-based precoding schemes are provided. In some embodiments, a method performed by a base station for determining precoding information includes: determining channel estimates for at least a channel between the wireless device and another device; determining a plurality of precoding hypotheses based on the channel estimates; determining a figure of merit for each of the plurality of precoding hypotheses; and determining the precoding information based on the figure of merit for each of the plurality of precoding hypotheses. In some embodiments, this precoding method enables the use of reciprocity-based precoding down to a lower Signal to Noise Ratio, SNR, than what existing state of the art reciprocity-based precoding can offer.