Theoretical and experimental error performance and data-throughput of on-body UWB-based WBANs in the presence of timing-jitter

Recently, we have proposed using sensor nodes with rectangular template-based correlator detectors for ultra wideband (UWB) wireless body area networks (WBANs). Typically, correlator-based receive nodes have the potential for providing high data-throughput, however, they require high power consumption. On the other hand, rectangular template-based receivers are low-power alternatives that provide a bit-error-rate (BER) performance that approaches the performance of optimal detectors. This paper investigates the BER performance and maximum allowable data-throughput of equally correlated pulse position modulation (EC-PPM) scheme of the proposed receive nodes for on-body WBANs in the presence of timing-jitter. We derive closed forms for the BER performance, and provide numerical results based on theoretical analysis, Monte Carlo simulations in the industrially accepted on-body UWB IEEE 802.15.6a channel model, as well as actual on-body measurements. Numerical results show that the maximum signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) penalty when using the rectangular template-based receive nodes is 0.5 dB, and the corresponding data-throughput degradation is 12 Mbps in the presence of timing-jitter. Moreover, the maximum allowable data-throughput at a distance of 4 m exceeds 300 Mbps, which makes the proposed low-power receive nodes a good candidate for reliable transmission of high data-rate medical data over WBANs.