Ultra wide-band body area channel model

• Published in: IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2005. ICC 2005. 2005 Vol. 4; pp. 2840 - 2844 Vol. 4
• Main Authors: Fort, A., Desset, C., Ryckaert, J., De Doncker, P., Van Biesen, L., Donnay, S.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2005
• Subjects: Biological system modeling; Electromagnetic measurements; Electromagnetic modeling; Electromagnetic propagation; Humans; Monitoring; Narrowband; Torso; Ultra wideband technology; Wireless sensor networks
• ISBN: 0780389387; 9780780389380
• ISSN: 1550-3607; 1938-1883
• DOI: 10.1109/ICC.2005.1494877

Using wireless sensors placed on a person to continuously monitor health information is a promising new application. However, there are currently no models describing the radio channel around the human body making it difficult to design a suitable communication system. To address this problem, we have simulated electromagnetic wave propagation around the body and incorporated these results into a simple model. We then compared this model with measurements taken around the human torso and with previous studies in the literature. This paper proposes a simple statistical channel model useful for evaluating both UWB and (after resampling) narrow-band body area communication systems.