Knife-Edge Diffraction Models for Human Body Shadowing Prediction

Abstract

Nowadays, human body influence on wireless communications is of prevalent interest. Indeed, human body becomes one of the most noticeable blockers of electromagnetic waves, especially for indoor environments, Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs), pedestrian crowds in dense urban environments and millimeter waves (mmWaves). In this paper, Human Body Shadowing (HBS) is predicted using original propagation models based on screen(s) for the human body geometrical model and Fresnel-Kirchhoff Theory (FKT) for the associated electromagnetic theory. These models, often known as Knife-Edge Diffraction (KED) models, are compared to Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD) models (associated with a Ray-Tracing (RT) and a circular cylinder with (or without) a sphere), and also to measurements based on both Motion Capture (MoCap) and 2.4 GHz radio systems.