Interference management in impulse-radio ultra-wide band networks

We consider networks of impulse-radio ultra-wide band (IR-UWB) devices. We are interested in the architecture, design, and performance evaluation of these networks in a low data-rate, self-organized, and multi-hop setting. IR-UWB is a potential physical layer for sensor networks and emerging pervasive wireless networks. These networks are likely to have no particular infrastructure, might have nodes embedded in everyday life objects and have a size ranging from a few dozen nodes to large-scale networks composed of hundreds of nodes. Their average data-rate is low, on the order of a few megabits per second. IR-UWB physical layers are attractive for these networks because they potentially combine low-power consumption, robustness to multipath fading and to interference, and location/ranging capability. The features of an IR-UWB physical layer greatly differ from the features of the narrow-band physical layers used in existing wireless networks. First, the bandwidth of an IR-UWB physical layer is at least 500 MHz, which is easily two orders of magnitude larger than the bandwidth used by a typical narrow-band physical layer. Second, this large bandwidth implies stringent radio spectrum regulations because UWB systems might occupy a portion of the spectrum that is already in use. Consequently, UWB systems exhibit extremely low power spectral densities. Finally IR-UWB physical layers offer multi-channel capabilities for multiple and concurrent access to the physical layer. Hence, the architecture and design of IR-UWB networks are likely to differ significantly from narrow-band wireless networks. For the network to operate efficiently, it must be designed and implemented to take into account the features of IR-UWB and to take advantage of them. In this thesis, we focus on both the medium access control (MAC) layer and the physical layer. Our main objectives are to understand and determine (1) the architecture and design principles of IR-UWB networks, and (2) how to implement them in practical schemes. In the first part of this thesis, we explore the design space of IR-UWB networks and analyze the fundamental design choices. We show that interference from concurrent transmissions should not be prevented as in protocols that use mutual exclusion (for instance, IEEE 802.11). Instead, interference must be managed with rate adaptation, and an interference mitigation scheme should be used at the physical layer. Power control is useless. Based on these findings, we develop a practical PHY-aware MAC protocol that takes into account the specific nature of IR-UWB and that is able to adapt its rate to interference. We evaluate the performance obtained with this design: It clearly outperforms traditional designs that, instead, use mutual exclusion or power control. One crucial aspect of IR-UWB networks is packet detection and timing acquisition. In this context, a network design choice is whether to use a common or private acquisition preamble for timing acquisitio