High Resolution ToA Estimation via Optimal Waveform Design

This paper introduces a novel method to improve the Time of Arrival (ToA) estimation resolution for a fixed available bandwidth in the presence of unknown multipath frequency selective (MPFS) channels. Here, the maximum rising level detector technique is proposed which utilizes oversampling and multiple correlation paths to evaluate with high resolution the path corresponding to the maximum rising level of matched filters output. However, employing such technique demands for transmission of waveform that creates a very high rising level at autocorrelation center. This paper proposes an efficient technique to design proper waveforms (very high rising level at autocorrelation center) via minimization of weighted integrated sidelobe level, exploiting the trust-region algorithm. The performance of the proposed technique is evaluated via simulations of the ToA mean square error, and compared with the state-of-the-art approaches considering the same bandwidth, and Cramer-Rao lower bound as benchmark. Simulations confirm that the ToA resolution is improved as the number of correlation paths increases and verify the feasibility of the proposed technique compared with the available approaches for the MPFS channels.