On parameter estimation for ultra-wideband channels with clustering phenomenon

One of the unique characteristics of ultra-wideband channels is the clustering phenomenon resolved by the ultra-wide signal bandwidth. Channel structures extended from the Saleh-Valenzuela model, e.g., the IEEE 802.15.3a and IEEE 802.15.4a models, have been proposed to describe such phenomenon. It is, however, noticed that a clear and systematic procedure to estimate the model parameters is still missing. Based on the recently developed analytical results, a new estimation approach is proposed in the paper to resolve the inconvenience and ambiguity in previous methods. The key step is to match the statistical profiles of interests by formulating an optimization problem with an explicit analytical objective function that can be systematically solved. Numerical tests have also been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.