Crossband flexible UWB multiple access for high-rate multipiconet WPANs

Emerging indoor technologies including wireless multimedia and personal area networks (WPANs) entail high-rate systems capable of supporting multiple users (piconets) with variable rates. These requirements motivate the design of multiband (MB) ultra-wideband (UWB) radios for their simplicity in handling pronounced frequency selectivity, agility in coping with interference, scalability in providing multirate operation, and their potentially low cost. Relative to baseband UWB radios, MB-UWB systems have gained popularity in the IEEE standards for short-range wireless links. However, multiple-access (MA) schemes must be designed carefully to harness the diversity benefits provided by the MB-UWB propagation, in a spectrally efficient manner. To this end, we introduce a crossband flexible UWB MA scheme for multipiconet WPANs. The resultant design that we term FLEX-UWB offers resilience to multiuser interference, can conveniently accommodate various spreading alternatives, enables full multipath diversity, and can effect scalable spectral efficiency (from low to medium and high data rates). Simulations confirm the merits of FLEX-UWB radios in comparison with various alternatives.