A Novel Start-of-Frame Delimiter Detection Algorithm for IEEE 802.15.4a Ultra-Wideband

The start-of-frame delimiter (SFD) is a significant component of impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) physical frame in IEEE 802.15.4a standard, marking the end of the synchronization signal and the beginning of the data. SFD detection lies in finding the SFD symbol pattern in the received signal, and incorrect SFD detection would result in frame reception failure. The conventional algorithm relies on correlators. However, due to the large side-lobes of the aperiodic autocorrelation function of the SFD sequence, this method suffers from high detection failure rates under low SNR conditions, thus becoming the pivotal factor limiting receiver performance at low data rates. In this letter, we transform the binary hypothesis model utilized in correlator-based method into a multiple-hypothesis model and propose a novel SFD detection algorithm based on the minimum distance criterion (MD). Both theoretical analyses and simulations are provided to validate the superiority of our proposed MD-based algorithm over the conventional correlator-based method. Significant performance gain is observed in terms of both the missed detection probability and false alarm probability.