Noise-based frequency offset modulation in wideband frequency-selective fading channels

A frequency offset modulation scheme using wideband noise carriers is considered. The main advantage of such a scheme is that it enables fast receiver synchronization without channel adaptation, while providing robustness to multipath fading and in-band interference. This is important for low-power wireless systems with bursty traffic, such as sensor networks. In this paper a semi-analytical framework for evaluating its bit error rate performance in wideband frequency-selective fading channels is introduced. Some numerical results are presented, based on channel models developed in the IEEE 802.15.4a channel modeling subgroup. These illustrate that the considered system can be designed with a lower fading margin than a narrowband system