Inter-Body Channel Model for UWB Communications

Abstract:
Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication systems have many attractive properties such as low interference to and from other existing wireless systems, low sensitivity to fading, easier wall-and-floor penetration, increased security, and low power consumption, etc. Such a technology is of particular interest to the medical sector for possibilities of applications in wireless patient monitoring, which current narrowband solutions cannot offer. The ultimate performance of any communication system is determined by the channel. A number of UWB channel models have been proposed within the frequency range of 3–6 GHz for on-body communications. However, it will also be interesting to focus on the communication between human bodies and to characterize the channel across the entire UWB frequency range of 3.1–10.6 GHz. In this paper, the transmission performance as well as a channel model for the UWB inter-body communications will be presented across the frequency range of 3–11 GHz. From the transmission measurements, the path loss, which is a fundamental parameter in link budget analysis, is calculated. From the path loss data, the channel model can be constructed.