IR-UWB Sensor Network Using Massive MIMO Decision Fusion: Design and Performance Analysis

This paper proposes and analyzes impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) system for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) using massive antenna arrays (MAAs) at fusion center (FC) for distributed detection. The coherent- and energy-based fusion rules are analyzed for the proposed WSN over multiple access channels. The tradeoff between the performance and the implementation complexity of the coherent- and energy-based fusion is studied. Furthermore, we show that MAAs at FC with various levels of channel knowledge can enhance the performance of energy-based detector in a UWB sensor network with simple system implementation and signal processing. Performance of the proposed UWB sensor network with reference to probability of detection, false alarm, and error are analyzed over the standard IEEE 802.15.4a multipath channels and results are validated using simulations. We have also analyzed the impact of various design parameters, such as the number of sensors, receiver antennas, sensor quality, and integration interval, on the system performance.