Abstract—Attractive features of time-hopping spread-spectrum multiple-access systems employing impulse signal technology are outlined, and emerging design issues are described. Performance of such communications systems in terms of achievable transmission rate and multiple-access capability are estimated for both analog and digital data modulation formats under ideal multiple-access channel conditions. Index Terms—Impulse radio, ultra-wide bandwidth. I. INTRODUCTION TO IMPULSE RADIO SYSTEMS THE TERM wideband, as applied to communication systems, can have different meanings. In conventional systems, “wideband ” implies a large modulation bandwidth and thus a high data transmission rate. In this paper, a spread-spectrum