Channel Models for Body Surface Communications in Ultra Wideband-Based Wireless Body Area Networks

Body area networks are being developed to serve a wide range of purposes ranging from providing health care to patients on the move to tracking patients and motion sensing for gaming controls. There has been significant and sizeable amount of research in the various areas and applications of body area networks. Ultra wideband which operates in the 3.1–10.6 GHz band is slowly being preferred for high data rate communication in body area networks. The development of suitable applications and techniques for communication depends significantly on the channel models. The wireless channel is a crucial parameter as it provides significant information about the propagation characteristics and losses involved in the transmission medium. The existing channel models proposed are mostly in the spectra involving the wideband 3.1–10.6 GHz bands or the 3.1–6 GHz bands. However, the IEEE 802.15.6 specifies operation in various sub-bands of 499.2 MHz width. And the channel characteristics are significantly different for wideband and narrowband channels. In this article, we propose empirical channel models for body surface communication in the various sub-bands specified by the IEEE 802.15.6. The body surface scenario is chosen as the combination of propagation through wireless media and losses due to absorption from body tissues make it challenging. The proposed path loss models are developed from more than 300,000 received power measurements collected over a span of hours.