1596

IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 16, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2012

Nonlinear Blind Narrowband Interference Mitigation for

Energy Detection Based UWB Receivers
Zhimeng Xu, Hong Nie, Member, IEEE, Zhizhang Chen, Fellow, IEEE,
Hassan Khani, Member, IEEE, and Lun Yu

AbstractIn this paper, a blind narrowband interference

(NBI) mitigation technique using the combination of a square
law (SL) device and a band pass filter (BPF) is proposed for
energy detection (ED) based ultra-wideband (UWB) receivers.
Both theoretical analysis and computer simulations show that
without requiring any prior knowledge about the NBI, the SL
technique can considerably improve signal-to-interference ratio
of the received UWB pulses and hence allows ED-based UWB
receivers achieve much better bit error rate. Furthermore, the
proposed SL technique has the same NBI mitigation performance
as the Teager-Kaiser operator (TKO) technique. Unlike TKO,
there are many commercial off-the-shelf SL devices are available
for IR-UWB applications. Thus, the proposed SL technique is a
simple, implementable, and highly effective blind NBI mitigation
technique for ED-based IR-UWB receivers.
Index TermsUltra-wideband, energy detection, narrowband
interference, Teager-Kaiser operator, square law device.

I. I NTRODUCTION

NERGY detection (ED) based impulse radio ultrawideband (IR-UWB) receivers have been considered as
a promising technology for low-power consumption and lowcomplexity wireless applications [1], [2]. However, because
the energy detector in the ED-based receivers cannot distinguish noise and interferences from the desired UWB signals,
noise and interferences are collected and considered as signal
as well. Consequently, as compared to a coherent receiver,
the ED-based receivers are more vulnerable to noise and
interferences and presents worse performance [2]. On the
other hand, many narrowband communication systems do exist
within the ultra-wide bandwidth of the UWB systems and they
present as interferences to the UWB systems. As a result,
narrowband interference (NBI) mitigation techniques must be
applied in conjunction with the ED-based receivers.
In recent years, many researches have been done in developing NBI mitigation technologies [1][4]. However, most of
the researches are based on digital interference cancelation
techniques. In order to apply such techniques, the received
UWB signals must be digitized by analog-to-digital converters

Manuscript received April 14, 2012. The associate editor coordinating the
review of this letter and approving it for publication was A. Giorgetti.
This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation of
the US under Grant No. 1002150, and the Natural Science and Engineering
Research Council of Canada under Grant STPGP 396417.
Z. Xu and L. Yu are with the College of Physics and Information
Engineering, Fuzhou University, P. R. China (e-mail: zhimeng.xu@gmail.com,
yulun@fzu.edu.cn).
H. Nie and H. Khani are with the Department of Technology, University
of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA (e-mail: hong.nie@uni.edu, Hassan.Khani@gmail.com).
Z. Chen is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (e-mail: z.chen@dal.ca).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LCOMM.2012.082012.120807

(ADCs) with a sampling rate of at least giga samples per

second. Consequently, digital NBI mitigation technologies become less attractive for the ED-based receivers demanding low
complexity and low power consumption. Use of analog notch
filter banks is another traditional NBI mitigation technique
[4]. However, prior knowledge for NBIs is needed, since the
notch frequencies can hardly be altered once the analog filters
are implemented. Hence, the NBI mitigation performance of
analog notch filter banks is far from optimal.
In 2008, a new NBI mitigation technique is proposed in
[5], where a nonlinear device, called Teager-Kaiser operator
(TKO), along with a high pass filter (HPF) is applied to
remove the NBI. In this technique, first the NBI is shifted
to a frequency band close to direct current (DC) by the TKO,
and then removed by the HPF. Since this technique does not
need any prior knowledge of the NBI, it attracts an increasing
attention [6][8].
The TKO is originally designed to process narrowband
signals, such as acoustic signals and low frequency AM-FM
signal [9], [10], and hence most of existing implementations
for the TKO are in the digital domain. In order to process IRUWB signals, the operation bandwidth of the TKO must be
at least 500MHz, which makes digital implementation become
impractical. Unfortunately, because the TKO includes both the
first- and the second-order derivatives, analog implementation
for the TKO that can process IR-UWB signals is also difficult.
To the best of our knowledge, [8] is the only paper on analog
TKO implementation in technical literatures open to public,
and no commercial off-the-shelf analog TKO is available.
Motivated by the nonlinear frequency shift concept initiated
by the TKO technique, in this paper, a new NBI mitigation
approach based on a square law (SL) device is proposed. By
replacing the TKO with a SL device and the HPF with a band
pass filter (BPF), the newly proposed SL technique can achieve
the same NBI mitigation performance as the TKO technique.
Furthermore, because analog SL devices that can process IRUWB signal are commercial off-the-shelf products, the SL
technique is an implementable NBI mitigation technique for
the ED-based IR-UWB receiver.
The organization of this letter is as follows: Section II
describes the system structure of an ED-based UWB receiver
employing the proposed SL technique. Section III theoretically
analyzes the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) improvement
offered by the SL technique. Section IV applies computer
simulations to verify the validity of theoretical analysis results
as well as investigate the improvement on bit error rate (BER).
Finally, conclusions are made in Section V.

c 2012 IEEE
1089-7798/12$31.00 

XU et al.: NONLINEAR BLIND NARROWBAND INTERFERENCE MITIGATION FOR ENERGY DETECTION BASED UWB RECEIVERS

LNA

BPF 1

Square Law
Device

s(t)

BPF 2

UWB
NBI
Cross-term

Signal
Power
BI

Square Law Approach

r(t)

y(t)

B PF 2
Information
Bits

1597

2 fI BI

2 fc B

2 fc + B

Energy Detection Based Receiver

Information
Detector

ti +TI
ti

(.) 2 dt

Fig. 1. The system structure of an ED-based UWB receiver employing the

proposed SL technique.

II. T HE P ROPOSED SL T ECHNIQUE

The system structure of an ED-based IR-UWB receiver
employing the proposed SL technique is shown in Fig. 1.
First, the received IR-UWB signal is amplified by a low noise
amplifier (LNA) and filtered by the BPF1 to remove out-ofband noise and interferences. Then the received signal is fed
to the SL device followed by the BPF2. Finally, the squaredand-filtered signal is sent to an ED-based receiver to recover
information bits.
For ED-based receivers, demodulation is based on the signal
energy collected over a specific time interval (0 t TI ),
which is determined by the delay spread of a multipath
channel. Assuming that pulse synchronization is perfect and
pulse repetition duration is longer than multipath delay spread,
i.e. no inter-pulse interference is present, the received signal
after the BPF1, denoted by r(t), can be expressed with
r(t) = p(t) + n(t) + i(t), 0 t TI .

(1)

Here p(t) is the received UWB pulse with a bandwidth of B

and an energy of Ep , n(t) is the background noise, and i(t) is
an NBI. For IR-UWB systems operating in the 3.1 10.6GHz
frequency band, generally, p(t) can be expressed as
p(t) = a(t)cos2fc t,

(2)

where a(t) is the baseband equivalent of p(t) and fc is the

center frequency of p(t). Furthermore, in order to analyze the
SIR improvement offered the SL technique, i(t) is modeled
with a wide-sense stationary (WSS), zero-mean Gaussian
bandpass random process with the following autocorrelation
function (ACF):
sinBI
cos2fI ,
(3)
Ri ( ) = E[i(t + )i(t)] = PI
BI
where PI , fI , and BI are, respectively, the power, the center
frequency, and the bandwidth of the NBI.
III. SIR I MPROVEMENT A NALYSIS FOR THE SL
T ECHNIQUE
Typically power of an NBI is much higher than that of the
background noise; hence, when an NBI is present, the effect of
the background noise can be omitted in the SIR improvement
analysis. Before the SL technique is applied, the SIR of r(t)
over [0, TI ] is given by

Fig. 2.

Power spectrum of the received signal after SL processing.

In this paper, we denote p2 (t) as the UWB term, i2 (t) as the

NBI term, and 2p(t)i(t) as the cross-term.
As shown in Fig. 2, in frequency domain, the UWB term
is located in [0, B] and [2fc B, 2fc B] frequency bands,
the NBI term is in [0, BI ] and [2fI BI , 2fI + BI ], and the
cross-term is in [0, |fc fI | + (B + BI )/2] and [fc + fI
(B + BI )/2, fc + fI + (B + BI )/2]. Thus, when the BPF2
with a passing band of [fp , B] is applied to filter s(t), the
whole NBI term can be removed if fp > BI , and consequently
the filter output, y(t), can have much higher SIR than the
original signal, r(t). It should be noted that the SL technique
does not require any prior knowledge about the NBI except
an estimation on the widest possible bandwidth of the NBI to
set fp at that value.
The analysis for the exact SIR of y(t) is given as follows.
It is assumed that the BPF2 has an ideal frequency response:

1, fp | f | B
(6)
H(f ) =
0, otherwise
From (2) and (5), after the SL technique is applied, the
energy of the UWB term is given by

1 B
|A(f ) A(f )|2 df,
(7)
Ep =
2 fp
where A(f ) is the Fourier transform of a(t). Meanwhile, the
NBI term, denoted by yi (t), has the following average energy:


Ei = E

TI

yi2 (t)dt = Ryi (0)TI .

From (3) and (6), Ryi (0) can be obtained as


 B
2
Ryi (0) =
Si2 (f )|H(f )| df = 2
Si2 (f )df,

(8)

(9)

fp

where Si2 (f ) is the power spectrum density (PSD) of i2 (t).

According to Wiener-Khinchin theorem, Si2 (f ) can be derived
from the Fourier transform of the ACF of i2 (t):
Ri2 ( ) = [Ri (0)]2 + 2[Ri ( )]2 .
Thus, from (3), (9) and (10), Ei can be obtained as

0,
f p BI ,
Ei = P
2
2
I

(BI fp ) TI , fp < BI .
BI

(10)

(11)

Ep
.
(4)
PI TI
After the SL technique is applied, the output of the SL device,
denoted by s(t), is given by

Considering that p(t) and i(t) are independent, the ACF of

the cross-term, 2p(t)i(t), is given by

s(t) = p2 (t) + i2 (t) + 2p(t)i(t), 0 t TI .

Rp,i (t + , t) = 4p(t + )p(t)Ri ( ).

SIRB =

(5)

(12)

1598

IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 16, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2012

Within the integration time [0, TI ], the average of Rp,i (t+, t)

is given by

( ) =

TI

Rp,i (t + , t)dt.

(13)

Then the average energy spectrum of the cross-term can be

derived from the Fourier transform of ( ):
 
f
PI
Sp,i (f ) =
rect
|A(f )|2 [(f f )+(f +f )
2BI
BI

Because of the wideband feature of IR-UWB systems, TI B 

1; therefore, the SL technique can achieve significant SIR
improvement for the ED-based UWB receivers. For example,
when B = 500MHz and TI = 200ns, the SIR improvement,
GSL , is about 15.2dB.

IV. C OMPUTER S IMULATIONS AND D ISCUSSIONS

In this section, using an ED-based binary pulse position
modulation (BPPM) UWB system as an example, computer
+(f (fc + fI )) + (f + (fc + fI ))]
(14) simulations have been carried out to verify the validity of the
theoretical analysis on the SIR improvement as well as inveswhere f = |fc fI | and rect(z) is a rectangular function tigate the BER improvement offered by the SL technique. In
defined as
the simulations, the transmitted UWB pulses have a waveform

defined by (18) with B = 500MHz and fc = 3.35GHz. The
1, 1/2 < z < 1/2,
rect(z) =
(15) duration of a BPPM frame is 400ns, and the time shift to
0, otherwise.
differentiate 1 from 0 is 200ns. Correspondingly TI is fixed
Since the bandwidth of i(t) is much smaller than p(t), at 200ns in the receiver. In addition, an NBI with bandwidth
f
PI
2
PI |A(f )|2 . Thus, from (6) and BI = 6MHz and center frequency fI = 3.35GHz is applied.
BI rect( BI ) |A(f )|
(14), the average energy of the cross-term, Ep,i , can be The BPF2 is designed by cascading a high pass filter (HPF)
approximated as
with a low pass filter (LPF). The cutoff frequency of the LPF

is B = 500MHz and that of the HPF is fp = 2MHz or 6MHz.
Sp,i (f )|H(f )|2 df
Ep,i =
Both the LPF and the HPF are implemented with Butterworth

filters.
 B


2
2
Initially the SIR improvements brought by the SL tech PI
|A(f f )| + |A(f + f )| df
(16)
nique have been investigated through theoretical analysis and
fp
From (7), (11), and (16), the SIR of y(t) over [0, TI ] can be computer simulations under both additive white Gaussian
noise (AWGN) channel and multipath channels (e.g. IEEE
obtained as:
Ep
802.15.4a CM1 channels [11]). In order to compare with
=
SIRSL =
the TKO technique, the SIR improvements brought by the
Ei + Ep,i

B
TKO have been obtained through computer simulations as
2
1
2 fp |A(f )A(f )| df

fp BI , well. From the theoretical and simulation results shown in

PI  B [|A(f f )|2 +|A(f +f )|2 ]df ,
fp
B
Fig. 3, first, we can conclude that for all scenarios (AWGN or
2
1
2 fp |A(f )A(f )| df



multipath channels, fp = 2MHz or 6MHz), the SL technique
,
f
<
B
B
p
I
PI 2
(BI fp )2 TI +PI f [|A(f f )|2 +|A(f +f )|2 ]df
BI
p
can achieve the same SIR improvement as the TKO technique.
(17)
Second, the theoretical results are well matched by the simuTo demonstrate the SIR improvement brought by the SL
lations results for all scenarios. Third, if fp < BI , e.g. when
technique in a straightforward manner, we have considered
fp = 2MHz, the NBI term cannot be removed completely,
the following UWB pulse as an example:
and
hence the SIR improvement decreases, especially when

sin(Bt)
the
input
SIR is low. When the input SIR is high, the cross2BEp Bt cos(2fc t), 0 < t < Tp
p(t) =
,
term
becomes
the dominant interference and thus the SIR
0,
otherwise
improvement
for
fp = 2MHz is close to that for fp = 6MHz.
(18)
Finally,
the
SIR
improvement under multipath channels is
where Tp is the duration time of the pulse. For the above
less
than
that
under
AWGN channel. This reduction can be
defined UWB pulse,
justified
as:
under
multipath
channel, A(f ) is no longer the

 
f
2Ep
flat
spectrum
defined
in
(19),
and hence Ep given by (7) has
rect
.
(19)
A(f ) =
B
B
a reduced value.
To evaluate the ultimate performance improvement brought
By substituting (19) into (17), the SIR of y(t) when fp
by
the SL and the TKO techniques, the BERs of the ED-based
BI is given by
BPPM
UWB system with a strong NBI and a SNR fixed at
Ep (B fp )3
/N
E
b
0 = 19dB have been simulated under both AWGN and
SIRSL =
.
(20)
3PI B(B 2fp )
CM1 channels. From the simulation results shown in Fig. 4,
By comparing (20) with (4), the SIR improvement brought it is clear that the SL technique has the same performance
as the TKO technique. Moreover, both the SL and the TKO
by the SL technique, denoted as GSL , can be expressed as
techniques can considerably improve the BER performance
TI (B fp )3
GSL =
.
(21) of the ED-based UWB receiver when a strong NBI is present.
3B(B 2fp )
For example, to achieve BER= 103 , the original ED-based
Since B  fp , GSL can be approximated with
BPPM receiver requires a SIR higher than 5dB; when the SL
technique with fp = 6MHz is employed, the required SIR is
1
(22) relaxed to 6.8dB under AWGN channel and 2.8dB under
GSL TI B.
3

XU et al.: NONLINEAR BLIND NARROWBAND INTERFERENCE MITIGATION FOR ENERGY DETECTION BASED UWB RECEIVERS
24

24

Simu: TKO+HPF(6MHz)
Simu: TKO+HPF(2MHz)

22
20

20
AWGN
channel
(dB)

16

16

SL

14

AWGN
channel

18

TKO

(dB)

18

12

14
12

10

10
CM 1
channel

8
6
8

CM 1
channel

0
SIR

6
8

(dB)

0
SIR

(dB)

SIR improvement offered by the SL and TKO techniques.

10

10

Bit Error Rate

Fig. 3.

Theo: SL+BPF(6MHz)
Simu: SL+BPF(6MHz)
Theo: SL+BPF(2MHz)
Simu: SL+BPF(2MHz)

22

BPPMED(AWGN)
BPPMED(CM1)
TKO+HPF(2MHz)
SL+BPF(2MHz)
TKO+HPF(6MHz)
SL+BPF(6MHz)

1599

the NBI, the SL technique can significantly improve the SIR

of the received UWB pulses, and hence the ED-based UWB
receivers employing the SL technique can achieve much better
BER performance than those not employing the technique.
Furthermore, computer simulations show that the proposed
SL technique has the same NBI mitigation performance as
the TKO technique. Due to its complicated mathematical
operations, no commercial off-the-shelf TKO is available for
IR-UWB applications. On the contrary, various commercial
off-the-shelf SL devices have an operation bandwidth of
500MHz or higher. Therefore, the proposed SL technique is
an implementable and highly effective blind NBI mitigation
technique for ED-based IR-UWB receivers that demand low
complexity and low power consumption. The last but not
the least, as a prior-ED NBI mitigation technique, the SL
technique can be employed jointly with posterior-ED NBI
mitigation techniques [12] to further improve the performance
of ED-based IR-UWB ranging systems.

CM1
channel

10

10

R EFERENCES
AWGN
channel

10
12

10

4
2
SIR B (dB)

Fig. 4. BER performance of the ED-based BPPM receiver employing the

SL or TKO technique.

the CM1 channels. The performance improvement under the

CM1 channels is lower than that under AWGN channel. This
result is consistent with the SIR improvement results discussed
previously.
In addition, Fig. 4 shows that the BER for fp = 2MHz
is only marginally higher than that for fp = 6MHz, which
means that even when the cutoff frequency of the BPF2 is
less than the bandwidth of the NBI, the SL technique still
can considerably mitigate destructive effects of the NBI. This
simulation result strengthens our claim that the SL technique
is a blind NBI mitigation technique and does not require any
prior knowledge about the NBI.
V. C ONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a blind NBI mitigation technique using
the combination of a SL device and a BPF is proposed to
mitigate destructive effects of an NBI on ED-based UWB
receivers. Through theoretical analysis and simulations, we
have shown that without requiring any prior knowledge of

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