Abstract
The Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) is one of the fledging paradigms that the next generation of wireless systems is sprouting towards. Among them, a more specific category is the Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) used for health monitoring. On the other hand, Ultra-Wideband (UWB) comes with a number of desirable features at the physical layer for wireless communications. One big challenge in adoption of UWB in WBAN is the fact that signals get attenuated exponentially. Due to the intrinsic structural complexity in human body, electromagnetic waves show a profound variation during propagation through it. The reflection and transmission coefficients of human body are highly dependent upon the dielectric constants as well as upon the frequency. The difference in structural materials such as fat, muscles and blood essentially makes electromagnetic wave attenuation to be different along the way. Thus, a complete characterization of body channel is a challenging task. The connection between attenuation and frequency of the signal makes the investigation of UWB in WBAN an interesting proposition. In this paper, we study analytically the impact of body channels on electromagnetic signal propagation with reference to UWB. In the process, scattering, reflectivity and transmitivity have been addressed with analysis of approximate layer-wise modeling, and with numerical depictions. Pulses with Gaussian profile have been employed in our analysis. It shows that, under reasonable practical approximations, the human body channel can be modeled in layers so as to have the effects of total reflections or total transmissions in certain frequency bands. This could help decide such design issues as antenna characteristics of implant devices for WBAN employing UWB.
Highlights
Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have attracted interest in recent years because of a number of promising applications—in the field of health monitoring
Ultra-Wideband (UWB) communication is a transmission technology that comes with such promises as low-power consumption [2], interference robustness [3], high local capacity [4], and less complex hardware, most of which are highly desirable for WBANs [5]
Employing UWB in WBAN involves a lot of promise, just as there are a number of relevant challenges
Summary
Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have attracted interest in recent years because of a number of promising applications—in the field of health monitoring. One key concern in this regard is about signal attenuation which occurs exponentially with frequency This leads to the need to study electromagnetic propagation across human body as medium, with consideration for UWB signal as it relates to communication system parameters for implant devices. The higher the frequency, the more attenuation takes place, which limits the use of high frequency or UWB in WBAN In this manuscript, we analyze the impact of the body channel on the signals in different frequency bands. We illustrate that the body channel can be mathematically modeled as composed of layers, with total reflection and total transmission of the signal in certain frequency bands, so as to approximate the propagation effect.
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