DEDICATION

Recent studies and investigations have demonstrated that ultrawideband (UWB) channels exhibit frequency-dependent distortion. Due to very large bandwidth, per-path components in a multipath received signal can exhibit distortion caused by shadowing (diffraction) or reflection by small objects. In this thesis, physics-based studies are carried out to investigate the frequency-dependent distortion of UWB channels. Based on this study, fractional derivatives and integrals of the transmit pulse are proposed as templates for the correlation receiver. Robust templates choices for one-path and multipath outdoor channels are identified. Receiver performance-complexity tradeoffs are the focus of this investigation. Finally, we compare the frequency-dependent propagation gain of UWB pulses in the upper and lower bands of the FCC spectral masks for various outdoor conditions. Potential benefits of adapting the transmitted signal to dominant propagation mechanisms are discussed. Efficient receiver Template Design and Propagation Gain analysis for Outdoor UWB communications b