Evaluation and Simulation of Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) Transceiver Timebases

Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) real-time localization systems usually require either precise and robust synchronization of the anchor transceivers or sufficiently stable clocks for methods referred to as “synchronization-free”. Typically, reasonably priced crystals or TCXOs are utilized as frequency references for the UWB transceivers. Clock characterization and simulation are necessary to evaluate and tune the synchronization or positioning algorithms without the need of hardware-pulling of the UWB reference oscillators. In this paper, the method of transceiver clock stability measurement is presented, and several modules with various clock sources are evaluated. As a reference, a UWB module with a clock derived from a Caesium standard is utilized. A method for simulating typical timestamp-series errors attributed to UWB transceiver clocks is provided as well.