  In this paper, we analyze the frequency-hopping orthogonal frequency-division
multiplexing (OFDM) system known as Multiband OFDM for high-rate wireless
personal area networks (WPANs) based on ultra-wideband (UWB) transmission.
Besides considering the standard, we also propose and study system performance
enhancements through the application of Turbo and Repeat-Accumulate (RA) codes,
as well as OFDM bit-loading. Our methodology consists of (a) a study of the
channel model developed under IEEE 802.15 for UWB from a frequency-domain
perspective suited for OFDM transmission, (b) development and quantification of
appropriate information-theoretic performance measures, (c) comparison of these
measures with simulation results for the Multiband OFDM standard proposal as
well as our proposed extensions, and (d) the consideration of the influence of
practical, imperfect channel estimation on the performance. We find that the
current Multiband OFDM standard sufficiently exploits the frequency selectivity
of the UWB channel, and that the system performs in the vicinity of the channel
cutoff rate. Turbo codes and a reduced-complexity clustered bit-loading
algorithm improve the system power efficiency by over 6 dB at a data rate of
480 Mbps.
