Performance evaluation of an ultra wideband radiolocation system with directional beacon

In radiolocation, an ultra wideband (UWB) directional beacon provides several advantages, such as enhanced range and link performance, reduced interference, and increased system capacity. Previous research analyzed the location error with a directional beacon in a Rayleigh channel model under the assumption of the existence of the line-of-sight (LOS) path and detection of the first multipath (Nasipuri, A. and Li, K., ACM Symp. on Wireless Sensor Network Applications, p.105-11, 2002). We investigate the location error for a UWB system based on directional beacons in a UWB multipath environment. For simulation, we locate four rotating directional beacons at the corners of a 100 m /spl times/ 100 m square and set the SNR=30 dB. Our results indicate that the mean location error is less than 1 cm under the existence of LOS paths for all four beacons, and 5.6 cm if one beacon does not have a LOS path.