Hi Vivek,
I've worked a little bit with UWB-Impulse Radio systems(using Time-Hopping for multiple access) so maybe I can help a little bit(although maybe you are not in UWB field).
The problem you are describing it's more from architectural level than circuit level, detection of pulses it's "the easy part"(although timing synchronization in the matched filter can be quite difficult if you want something more than the detection of a pulse, i.e. maximum energy it's obtained only when the local generated template pulse an the receiver pulse are perfectly synchronized) the problem is the ability to discriminate between desired pulses and "interferences", I think that several approaches are valid:
1)Use an scheme like CSMA(but in this case without carrier):the transceiver don't transmit always, they listen the channel if free they sent,the others listen that somebody it's transmitting and then wait a predefined amount of time(duration of pulse + margin for the echo), it's similar to CSMA-CD in Ethernet wired systems but have the problem of the hidden terminal like in WLAN systems. The approach of WLAN it's CSMA-CA but needs a device that acts as "acces point" and a sequence of RTS/CTS(Request To Sent/Clear to Sent) but it avoids hidden terminal problem.
2)Using a topology Master/Slave where one device controls the others and authorizes for transmission, then the device has a temporal window for sending the train of pulses and listening, after that the master allows the following terminal.
3)Use of CDMA to code the train of pulses, each transceiver will have it's own pseudo-orthogonal sequence(I think Gold sequences are the ones used in 3G systems), this approach complicates the receiver since it's necessary to perform correlation of the whole received sequence and needs a perfect alignment of the the template with the received train end but in theory it's feasible to implement using Pulse-Position Modulation(PPM) where the code it's applied as a variable delay to the position of the pulse inside the chain(0 no delay,1 delay).

As you can see 1) & 2) fall inside what it would be TDMA techniques,3) it's CDMA one.

And I don't know, I will try to scratch my head a little bit more,
Hope it helps,

Hi Vivek,
I was thinking of this issue and maybe two options are feasible to investigate(although I personally find them complicated):
1)Use of superregenerative receiver concept, the problem is that since it's like a tuned oscillator I think pulse must be shaped to be "sinus like". Also althought in theory it's the topology with the greatest sensibility it needs a good isolation(causes spurious transmission in reception) and the control loop should be well defined.
2)Use of autocorrelation for reception, it's similar to matched filter but the template pulse it's the received pulse(which avoid synchronization), I've seen two approches:
a)Use of a "squarer":the received pulse feds the two branches of the multiplier
b)Sent two pulses instead of one, with a delay of Td, in reception the path to the multiplier is divided in two:one directly and the other through a delay(which I think is the hardest part to implement), this way the first received pulse is used for the multiplication with the second pulse.
Just some ideas that I had, not sure if any of them will be really useful.
Hope it helps,

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your responses. I hope that I can find a good solution based on these inputs.

Regards
Vivek

Hi,
loose-electron could you post any reference on the use of Viterbi as a pulse detector?, it's because I've always seen it as sequence detector(decoder,error corrector as you would like to name it but deals with bit streams) based in Maximum likelihood, moreover I always senn it used with bit chains coded following a FSM(Finite State Machine) method(like convolutional codes or Trellis Coded Modulation) and I'm a bit curious about this.
Thanks,
PS: when you say integration detection is not suggested you include the matched filter?(that it's the detection method that maximizes the SNR in a AWGN channel if my memory is not failing,moreover in multipath channels with CSI(Channel State Information) the Rake receiver can be derived using n-branch multipliers and maximum ratio combining).

Hi Jerry,
Thanks for the explanation, the mapping of the pulse values fits well on my background, I've been doing a little bit google search and will try to look at it in depth when I have a little bit time. I've did a little bit of ML and MAP(Bayesian theory) estimators so I will add this little piece to knowledge vault just in case I needed it the future.
Thank you very much once again,