Application of layered space-time processing to ultra-wideband communication

Ultra-wideband (UWB) signals use extremely short duration pulses (on the order of hundreds of picoseconds) for transferring information. This makes it the technology of choice for highspeed short-range communications in dense multipath channels [3]. In this paper we analyze the usefulness of using Layered Space-Time Processing [1] over a UWB system. VBLAST is one such approach proposed to increase spectral efficiency using multi-input multi-output channels [1]. We Propose the exploitation of the large number of resolvable multipath components in a UWB environment to achieve similar spectral efficiency gains. In this paper we investigate the bit error rate versus spectral efficiency tradeoff applying the VBLAST concept to a UWB system.